A raw October day is no match for the warmth of Ashley and Nicholas Ritchie’s home in Brewster.
They bought a three-bedroom Cape last year for just over $240,000 — far less than market value — through an affordable housing lottery.
The house has a woodstove and a cathedral ceiling in the living room and plenty of natural light, and it’s on a quiet street where their three young children can play.
“We really lucked out with this neighborhood,” Ashley said.
With Barnstable County median sale prices in the 700s, the Ritchies couldn’t find something on their own that worked for their family. So they decided to try entering lotteries for deed-restricted affordable homes.
Homes that carry wealth restrictions written into the deed — and must sell below market value — have become an appealing option for a growing number of Cape Cod families.
A Hyannis nonprofit, Housing Assistance Corporation, runs most of the affordable-home lotteries on the Cape.
Many times it goes smoothly, but for Ashley and Nick, there were lots of ups and downs. They came in third in the lottery, which would usually mean they didn’t get the house.
Then, they learned the first two buyers didn’t qualify. The house would be theirs.
But the next day, they got a devastating call. It was a staff member at the nonprofit, saying the second-place buyer might get the house after all.
And then, “a couple days later,” Ashley recalled, “she called again and said, ‘Okay, you guys, this is the final decision. Like, the other two, they're out. They can't get it.’”
They were shocked. She probably cried, she said.
Nick wasn’t sure what to think.
“I didn't even want to get my hopes up,” he said. “Like, I wasn't excited. Actually, it was kind of weird because we were like, ‘It's too good to be true.’”
The house was unusual. It was a foreclosure.
And it had some condition problems the Ritchies knew about. They’d been eyeing the house for years, knowing it might come up for sale.
When it did, they went inside.
“There was holes in the walls,” Ashley said. “The doors were falling off. … There was water damage everywhere. Like, all the walls were all different colors. The previous person had ripped all the appliances out.”
Ashley and Nick were willing to accept all those things.
But it turned out, those weren’t all the things. A home inspection deemed the house unlivable, Ashley said.
“There was mold everywhere and there was — ugh. It was so, so, so damaged,” she said. “There was no electricity because mice had chewed through everything.”
And don’t forget — live animals in the attic.
“Raccoons, and then — what? A couple rats,” she said, turning to her husband. “You saw some pretty big rats, a squirrel, and we — honestly, I count this as luck, because during the home inspection, those live animals were all in the attic.”
The inspector saw them. That clinched the decision that the house was officially unlivable, which helped in the end.
An unlivable house can’t be sold in an affordable housing lottery. So the seller, the Federal National Mortgage Association, known as Fannie Mae, paid for enough repairs to make it livable.
As we’ll see, that was the green light the Ritchies needed to make a home for themselves — and their children — in Brewster.
But first, let’s take a look at how deed-restricted affordable-home buying works.
Five new homes in Waquoit Village serve as an example. Developed by the Falmouth Housing Trust, they’re selling for five different prices — even though three are exactly alike.
Laura Moynihan, executive director of the trust, showed a visitor around one of the two larger homes, a three-bedroom.
“So the floors are in, but they’re covered, just because of the construction,” she said. “And this is the open-kitchen concept for the three-bedroom.”
Using a combination of funding sources, groups like the trust sell homes — new or not — at far less than market value. Buyers have to meet income and asset limits. And with some exceptions, they usually have to be first-time homebuyers.
But as Moynihan explained, the income limit isn’t the same for every home.
“The purchase price for this home is $410,000, so it's the most expensive home in the development,” she said. It’s available to middle-income households earning up to 120 percent of area median gross income. For a family of five, that’s $177,240.
The two-bedroom homes at this new development, called Bigelow Landing Road, are exactly the same, but they’ll be sold for different prices to buyers of various incomes. The least expensive, for those up to 80 percent of median income, is priced at $265,000.
To preserve public and private investments in the subsidies, homes sold as affordable are usually deed-restricted as affordable in perpetuity. So if you sell down the road, you can make a profit, but the home still sells for less than market value.
Gael Kelleher, director of real estate sales for Housing Assistance Corporation, said there’s plenty of demand for these homes — about 20 families in each lottery.
“It’s great for the person that is the winner, but it's unfortunate for the rest, because those other 19 people are credit rock stars, perfect credit, great jobs, working here,” she said.
This time, Ashley and Nick were the lucky ones.
Last December, they and their three children moved out of a two-bedroom apartment to the house on Sean Circle in Brewster.
Now, the kids have space to play, and the family can stay on the Cape. So can their labor, in fields the community needs: She’s a dental hygienist; he’s a plumber.
Ashley Ritchie said they’ve learned the power of dreaming — and sticking with the plan.
“It just goes to perseverance,” she said, “and trying to imagine what you want, and then — you can kind of have it.”
