Providence Walk

Providence Walk is a mixed-income owner community in which 43 homes (40 percent of all units) are reserved for low- and moderate income first-time homebuyers and the balance (64 units) are available at market rates. The detached homes were built on a site assembled by the Fairfield Redevelopment Agency (FRA); the land was formerly occupied by a dilapidated church building, a vacant property, and an over-crowded mobile home park that had been cited for numerous health and safety violations (mobile home tenants were relocated by the FRA, although one former tenant purchased a home at Providence Walk). While state laws required that fair market value be paid for the land, the FRA set aside $1.8 million in proceeds from sale of the property to provide deferred loans to low- and moderate-income buyers, allowing them to afford purchase prices of approximately $300,000 (median sales prices in the area exceed $450,000). Purchasers of the "reduced price" homes are subject to a 45-year deed restriction that limits sales of the homes to other qualified below-market buyers.