Yo’s truly is looking at “deals” and ways to attain affordable housing in Chicago. We checked out the Chicago Partnership for Affordable Neighborhoods (CPAN) project, where the city assists eligible homebuyers through purchase assistance and developer write-downs. Eligible buyers are first-time buyers (have not owned a home within the last three years) with incomes up to 100 percent of the area median. Purchase-price assistance is available for households with incomes up to 80 percent of the area median.
Twenty units at The Woodlands, 606 E Woodland Park Ave, are available to CPAN applicants. The gated 240-unit community is comprised of three converted apartment buildings, which overlook a private park. The market-rate price range for the one- to three-bedroom units is from the $140s to $250s. The developer is selling the CPAN units at market-rate prices, and the city is kicking in between $10,000 and $30,000 in purchase assistance, according to sales agent Dick Greenwood, vice-president and director of Coldwell Banker Builder Marketing Programs.
The one-bedroom units are all sold, and CPAN buyers are purchasing the two-bedroom condos, which are priced from the $190s. Affordable and market-rate units come with the same features, which include laminate countertops, Moen faucets, carpeting in common areas and hardwood floors in kitchens. The elevator buildings have laundry areas and storage lockers.
“We’ve got everything from teachers to nurse assistants to city workers, secretarial people,” Greenwood says. “It’s a wealth of working people.”