Construction on a 28-home development intended to provide homeownership for local middle-income earners is set to begin by October, says Maggie Lyons, executive director of Panhandle Affordable Housing Alliance. 

Dubbed Miracle on Britton, the starter home development is planned on a 4.7-acre parcel along Greensferry Road, just south of Prairie Avenue, in Post Falls. PAHA purchased the property for $2.4 million, Lyons says. 

The contractor and architect on the $6.5 million project is Redmond, Oregon-based Simplicity by Hayden Homes, an affiliate of Hayden Homes LLC, Lyons says. Kalispell, Montana-based Mann Mortgage and Coeur d’Alene-based Mountain West Bank will provide financing. The Coeur d’Alene office of title and escrow company TitleOne will transfer property rights and other services. 

The homes will be dedicated to households earning combined annual incomes between $75,000 and $116,000 and will be priced from $290,000 to $399,000, Lyons says.

“These homes are pretty much geared for those making anywhere between 90% area median income, up to 120%,” Lyons says. “These are ... families that will just have absolutely no opportunity and are making by all standards really good money.” 

PAHA, a North Idaho nonprofit, was originally dedicated to low-income housing.

However, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and house prices accelerated to increasingly unaffordable levels, even for families earning a middle-class income, it became clear that PAHA had an additional mission to provide homeownership opportunities for middle-class workers, such as teachers, firefighters, police officers, plumbers, electricians, and hospital workers, she says. 

Miracle on Britton is a shared-equity, deed-restricted fee simple housing development, Lyons says. The land and home will be sold together but reduced in price through private and public alliances and will have certain deed restrictions. 

PAHA plans to manage the deed-restricted homes and deliver a proof of concept that showcases how to work with shared-equity homes that are below market price, yet still provide homeowners with accrued market appreciation on the home, Lyons says. 

The deadline to apply for a home through the program is Oct. 1. PAHA has begun sending notices to employers through to the Coeur d’Alene Regional Chamber, the Post Falls Chamber of Commerce, and the Coeur d’Alene Area Economic Development Corp., encouraging employers to share information about the Miracle on Britton development with their employees.