Casey Doyle never thought she’d be a homeowner. 

Then a miracle happened.

Doyle and her husband of nine years, Daniel, were approved to purchase a home in the Miracle on Britton neighborhood in Post Falls. 

“I didn’t have my heart on it,” she said. “It’s kind of like buying a lottery ticket. You don’t expect to win.” 

Spearheaded by the Panhandle Affordable Housing Alliance, the Miracle on Britton is a fee-simple, shared-equity neighborhood built through a certified deed restriction management program.

The deed restrictions mean that the 28 homes in the neighborhood are designated for a certain income, they must be owner occupied and a resale formula allows for wealth creation while keeping the homes attainable for future Kootenai County workers. 

“The homes will never be priced to market,” said PAHA Executive Director Maggie Lyons. 

When people hear the words “affordable housing,” many think of government-subsidized rental housing for low-income families and other government programs for low-income renters.  

This type of housing can be difficult to build due to limited funding and other restrictions, meaning supply is limited. 

But when Lyons and other advocates speak of affordable housing in Kootenai County, they have a different concept in mind—something more like “attainable housing” for middle-income earners like the Doyles who don’t qualify for assistance but can’t afford a median-priced $552,500 single-family home in Kootenai County. 

“The problem for us is that wages, even though they have risen, have really been eclipsed by the real estate market,” Lyons said. “We have what traditionally have been high-paying jobs with a desire for home ownership and they can’t touch home prices today.” 

That’s the gap the Panhandle Affordable Housing Alliance aims to fill with the Britton model. 

Of Britton’s buyers, 90% are dual-income families that earn between $79,000 and $120,000 annually, with an average household income of $97,000. These families are overwhelmingly local; 95% were raised in Kootenai County, including the Doyles, who both grew up in Post Falls. Most of the new homeowners are between the ages of 22 and 34. 

Britton’s demographics are similar to the wider county’s. 

“Most of Kootenai County’s workers fall into the middle or upper middle (income) and most of them were raised here and they want to stay here,” Lyons said. “There’s a real desire in this community for people to stay where they were raised.” 

Lyons said she believes communities across Idaho and around the nation will come to adopt the Britton model upon seeing how well it works. 

“There’s no other community right now building this model home,” she said. “I think the Britton model home will become the generic term.” 

Ali Rabe, executive director of Gem State Housing Alliance, said there are three main reasons why attainable housing is so scarce in Idaho. 

First, the cost of land, labor and materials have all increased. 

Second, proposed housing developments are frequently shot down by local government bodies. 

“We have a lot of anti-growth sentiment that’s putting pressure on our elected officials,” Rabe said. “That constrains our supply. Nobody wants housing in their back yard.” 

Third, regulations and red tape are tough to cut through. Throughout Idaho, Rabe said, many zoning codes haven’t been updated since the 1970s. Outdated codes prevent many types of housing from being built, especially smaller types like duplexes and triplexes—housing locals could afford to live in. 

That’s where Gem State Housing Alliance comes in. Rabe said the new housing advocacy organization aims to work with elected officials at every level of government in Idaho to improve housing policy and allow more housing to be built. 

Housing is at the center of communities everywhere, Rabe said, and lack of attainable housing can have unexpected negative effects on everything from personal health and parenting outcomes to traffic. 

“Everybody cares about traffic, but if we don’t have housing that is attainable for people near jobs, then people have to move further away from amenities and businesses, and that puts a strain on our roads and our infrastructure,” she said. “The further out we have to put our housing, the more it’s going to cost us over time.” 

Housing shortages also have economic implications. 

“Our businesses are telling us, all over Idaho, that there’s not enough people to do these jobs because they don’t have anywhere to live,” she said. 

Last summer, Doyle’s family moved into a three-bedroom home in the Britton neighborhood. 

“We come from generational poverty,” she said. “Our parents never owned a home. I feel like we’re getting a leg up from the community.”  

One of the first things she and her husband did was plant climbing roses in memory of Doyle’s late mother, as well as a tree in honor of her husband’s late father—something they never had the freedom or security to do before. 

“I feel like we have roots in a way that you can’t have when you’re renting,” she said. “Landlords can change. Rent can go too high. You’re one change away from having to move. It’s a blessing to know that’s not going to happen.”