Helping people into housing

Residents in Carbon County are eligible for United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) low-interest home loans, if they meet the income eligibility requirements, according to the state director of rural development.

State Director of USDA Rural Development Glenn Pauley spoke to the Saratoga Sun on Friday about the low-interest loan program.

“We have a low-interest loan at 4.625 percent and if the income is low enough, it can go down to 1 percent,” Pauley said.

The terms are typically for 33 to 38 years and are USDA rural home loans.

In Carbon County, which is considered rural, the maximum size loan is $377,600, he said. The problem is not a lot of inventory is available in that price range.

“A lot of the developers out there are not focusing on building houses in that range,” he said.

A number of developers can afford the cost of housing, but they can’t afford the cost of the infrastructure to the property and “make it affordable,” he said.

Bryan and Kathy Drake, co-owners of Triple D Construction, are looking for ways to make constructing housing in Saratoga affordable to the entry-level buyer, as previously published in The Sun.

“I am trying to hit the single worker [market] who can’t afford Overlook or Vista Dawn,” Bryan Drake said. “That’s behind the bus garage, 30 lots by the hospital on the west side of town.

“I will work with anybody who wants to help fund [the sewer, water and road infrastructure],” he said.

Funding the infrastructure to the lots would cost many thousands of dollars in engineering fees. Funding the infrastructure costs to the property would make the price of the homes unaffordable to the entry-level buyer, he said.

“This is a statewide problem,” Pauley said, referring to the lack of affordable housing being built. “In my travels, I only know of one county in Wyoming where this is not an issue.”

He said the USDA loans are available for anything that can be put on a permanent foundation, including a 3-D printer home.

A number of people are looking at different forms of home construction as a way “to build quality homes at a lower price point,” he said.

At this moment, the USDA is not approving loan applications because the U.S. Congress has not passed the federal budget, he said. However, the USDA is taking applications.

For more information, visit https://www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/single-family-housing-programs/single-family-housing-direct-home-loans.