Off Portage Road, between Stanley Avenue and Woodbine Avenue, is a large lot where two newly-built houses stand. It’s the site of Stanwood Crossings, a new community where the homes are for sale — but the land is owned by the Portage Community Land Trust.
The concept is known as a ground lease, which is a model in which a land trust rents out the land beneath a home to the homeowners for a low price. According to government-backed mortgage company Fannie Mae, ground leases are a common way for community land trusts to maintain long-term affordability of properties in an area.
City of Portage chief development officer Pete Dame said that's exactly the goal of Stanwood Crossings. Because of the land trust, buyers don't have to factor the land into the purchase of the home.
"Only the house is purchased by the resident," Dame said. "So when the resident goes to sell their house, they sell it to someone who the community land trust has determined meets the affordability range.”
Under the requirements of the land trust, qualified buyers must fall within 80-120% of the area median income. For 2025 in Portage, that's $69,040 to $103,560 for a three-person household.
When the house is resold, Dame said the community land trust sets the price based on the current area median income and finds a buyer that meets the income requirements.
City of Portage housing resource specialist Anita Johnson said this process is meant to keep the houses within reach for the average buyer.
“We are focusing what we call workforce housing. Those are our city hall workers, teachers, firefighters, our police officers throughout our community who are unable to obtain housing," Johnson said.
The ground lease agreement gives the land trust authority to set the prices of the houses when they are re-listed and adjust income requirements based on updated area median incomes. According to Dame and Johnson, the goal is to make the houses affordable for current buyers and the next generations of owners to come.
“It is a shared equity program so essentially buyers are able to purchase their home at a discounted rate with a resale restriction that they will sell their home to another income-qualified family, which essentially creates that affordability over perpetuity," Johnson said.
In addition, Dame said the houses are able to be sold at a discounted rate due to grants that allow the land trust to take on some of the initial cost of the home and pass those on to the next buyers.
"If there was no community land trust, whoever the city might sell the initial house to would just walk off with the profit from any incremental value that may have accrued over the course of time of holding house, but also they would obtain a windfall from the — typically a 25% reduction in the overall cost of the home which was provided by a grant, and the purpose of the grants was to maintain affordability," Dame said.
Construction has begun on the first two of the 42 total homes that will sit in Stanwood Crossings, and Johnson said they are expected to be completed in November of 2025.
Interested buyers can fill out the Stanwood Crossings inquiry form found on the City of Portage website.
This story is part of Southwest Michigan Journalism Collaborative’s coverage of equitable community development. SWMJC is a group of 12 regional organizations dedicated to strengthening local journalism. Visit swmichjournalism.com to learn more.
This story is also part of a collaboration with NowKalamazoo exploring Kalamazoo County's housing crisis.
