Tag: deed restrictions
-
Deeds Reserved for Affordability: Incentives for Home Buyers to Live in Hawaii
Hawaii continues to grapple with its housing crisis. Hawaii’s Hale Kamaaina Mortgage Program is a state-based initiative to connect first-time home buyers with cut-rate mortgages. And this year, it made an extra $3,000 available to its first 35 buyers. Hale Kamaaina offers first-time Hawaii home purchasers: The funding comes from tax-exempt mortgage bonds. Hawaii administers…
-
Affordability Fix or Just Busy Work? Deed Transfer Tax Hike Divides Cape Cod
Here’s a “home rule” question. Should Massachusetts let the towns of one county charge a luxury transfer tax on homes that sell for more than $1 million as they see fit? The Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates, a governing body made up of one elected member from each of the Cape Cod towns, has just…
-
Beyond Bizarre: Milwaukee’s Racial Deed Restrictions
Milwaukee is dealing with a race matter — affecting tens of thousands of the city’s property deeds. Two researchers, Profs. Anne Bonds and Derek Handley, shared their progress with more than 200 interested attendees this month at Milwaukee Central Library. The findings were beyond bizarre.
-
Is It Legal to Bury Someone in the Backyard (and Would It Impact the Deed)?
This summer, a construction crew unearthed a surprising discovery in northwest Tucson, Arizona. Human bones. Turns out they were from a person buried on once-private land, by their family, some 50 years ago. Which brings up a question some deed holders ask: Is it legal to bury a human body on residential property? The answer…
-
Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff: No Need for Home Buyers to Walk Away Over These Common Issues
Understandably, house hunters look for “issues” as they search for the right homes. They wait with bated breath to scour the reports from inspectors, appraisers, and title reviewers. Any time a mortgage is involved, a lender requires a title search. Through this process, the deed’s history is traced, to check its integrity. The key question?…
-
Dane County, Wisconsin Event Helps Deed Holders Delete Racial Covenants
In June, a two-and-a-half-hour event took place at the Alliant Energy Center Exhibition Hall in Madison. The goal? To deal with harmful, racially motivated deed restrictions. Local leaders showed up — and led. Title professionals came to help deed holders fill out and record the document called “Discharge and Release of Discriminatory Restriction Affecting Real…
-
Is the Backyard Cottage Written Into the Deed, or Recorded Separately?
You might be familiar with guest houses or garden suites. You might have seen detached garages turned into cottages, or finished basements converted into rental space. Town managers call these extra living spaces ADUs: accessory dwelling units. A house deed typically does not point out an ADU on the property. But the additional living unit…
-
“I Never Thought I Would Own a House…” A Community Trust in Vermont Takes on the Housing Shortage
Too many homes sit empty in towns where working people need them. In a housing affordability crisis, this has to change. In Vermont, a local nonprofit is stepping up. Local Deeds is an initiative that helps people make down payments on homes. Specifically, working people. A deed restriction ensures that someone in the home has…
-
Workforce Deed Restrictions: How Are They Monitored?
With housing costs up (and wages not so much), some cities need to give working people a hand. As financial barriers to homeownership continue to frustrate so many wage earners, workforce housing is one way to make deeds attainable. It’s for households earning too much to qualify for standard government subsidies, but who can’t pay…
-
A Minnesota First: Twin Cities Suburb Requires Removal of Race-Based Deed Restrictions
Mounds View, Minnesota is making history with its new ordinance requiring home sellers to remove race-based deed restrictions before selling. Mounds View adopted its new ordinance on July 23, 2024. It’s official. Mounds View, a Minneapolis – St. Paul suburb, will now require the removal of racially restrictive covenants from deeds. Racial covenants (a.k.a. race-based…
-
So Many Homes in HOAs—Is This the Future of Houses?
It’s your deed. But it could come with community-wide restrictions, as well as a long list of homeowners’ association rules that support those restrictions. If you value privacy and autonomy, this might be just what you’re trying to avoid. You want ownership — not other people telling you how to live. But it’s getting harder…
-
Wait—Did Alabama Put Restrictions on Flooded Home Deeds So Owners Can’t Sue?
Homeowners in Shiloh, situated in Coffee County in southern Alabama, have questions. According to an exposé by Inside Climate News, officials put deed restrictions on their home titles, preventing them from suing the state. These covenants run with the land, binding the deed holders — and anyone who might ever receive their deeds, far into…
-
Driving Change: Can a Real Estate Company Use AI to Root Out Prejudice in Deeds?
Seattle real estate firm John L. Scott is on to something. The company is working with Amazon Web Services to create intelligent document processing. The goal? To help deed holders easily check for race-based deed restrictions — and take action. Race-based prejudice is all too common in deeds across the United States. The language…
-
Deed Restrictions as Affordability Tools
Vacation Town Residents Get Paid to Live in Their Homes Park City, Utah is a tourist mecca. It’s known for the Sundance Resort, with its famous Sundance Film Festival. Need we say it’s a town full of vacation rentals? Two-thirds of Park City’s homes have no one living in them. The supply of homes for…
-
Can Condo Buyers Freely Work in, Sell, and Rent Their Condos?
A condo for sale? That’s an opportunity for a buyer to acquire a deed, start building equity…and maybe even attain financial freedom. Some first-timer buyers who want a foothold on the ownership ladder jump on a condo listing for precisely that reason. To some, condo deeds represent long-term homes and investments. To others, condos are…
