Dec 17SWMHP Shows Off New Home for Sale: St. Peter Traverse Green
ST. PETER — Recorded classical holiday music and the aroma of fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies greeted visitors who stopped by a new one-story home at 2103 Lunden St. early Tuesday evening.
“The oven is working, and the electricity is on,” said Erin Wachtel, homeownership advisor for Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership. She was one of several SWMHP staff standing near a kitchen counter in one of the nonprofit’s first Partnership Community Land Trust houses in St. Peter.
“We got the heat and electrical in during the warm spell before this month’s cold,” said SWMHP’s Project Manager Levi Hudnutt.
He’s been working with the contractors who built two one-story houses in a Traverse Green subdivision on the northwest edge of town.
The partnership’s Community Land Trust is a long-term affordability program that helps qualified buyers purchase quality homes by reducing upfront costs and ensuring long-term affordability. Buyers own the home and lease the land for a small monthly fee. The land is held in a trust so that it stays affordable for future owners. Homeowners are responsible for property taxes.
Income guidelines for potential owners have been established, and the Lunden Street structure has a $217,000 price cap.
More than a dozen homes will be available through the program by the end of 2027. New construction is planned in Mankato, Willmar, and St. Peter. Existing houses in Mankato are scheduled to be remodeled before they are put on the market. Single people as well as large households can apply to buy homes through the program, Watchel said.
Councilwoman Keri Johnson gave her stamp of approval after completing a house tour at the same time as St. Peter resident Zuleika Abdi and her 12-year-old daughter.
“It’s spacious, there’s a park nearby, and this is an up-and-coming neighborhood,” Johnson said.
Abdi, who works in Mankato, is sold on the prospect of being a homeowner. The landlord of her rental has sold the home, so Abdi and her family are motivated to buy.
“My friends say I should move to Mankato or to Shakopee, but I love St. Peter,” she said.