What is the Affordable Home Ownership Program?

The Town of East Hampton Affordable Home Ownership Program is the Town of East Hampton’s principal program to provide the opportunity for home ownership to qualified individuals and families. Since the 1980’s, this program has led to the construction and administration of over 200 individual homes. 

Generally speaking, the Program works as follows: the Town will construct a new residence on Town-owned land and make the house (only) available for purchase at an affordable price. The Town maintains ownership of the underlying land. Homeowners are responsible for the purchase of the home and resultant mortgage and to pay taxes, utilities, maintenance costs, and all other costs normally associated with home ownership. When homeowners decide to sell the home, the Town will commonly “buy-back” the home to keep it in the system and offer it to the next qualified individual or family. The Office of Housing and Community Development uses various grants, programs, public and private financing entities to administer the Program.

Does the Town of East Hampton plan to have more affordable homes available for purchase?

In the coming years, we hope to not only increase the number of single-family homes available through the Home Ownership Program, but exponentially increase the rate at which they are constructed. The recent establishment of the Community Housing Fund is anticipated to greatly aid this effort by providing funding for projects to construct new housing units and purchase existing ones. 

It is the goal of the Town of East Hampton to have all members of the community have an opportunity to obtain adequate and affordable housing.

What if I want to or need to rent as opposed to owning a home?

The Affordable Home Ownership Program represents the home ownership approach, as opposed to rentals, to our goal of providing an adequate supply of affordable housing. For more information on rental opportunities in the Town, please see the main page of the Office of Housing and Community Development on this website including the links to the East Hampton Housing Authority, Windmill Village HDFC and Whalebone Village

How do I get on the list to be eligible for a home through the Affordable Home Ownership Program?

The Office of Housing and Community Development maintains a list of eligible applicants. This list was last updated in 2017 and was created after an application process which utilized a lottery to determine the order of eligible individuals. The Housing List is CURRENTLY CLOSED. However…

…with new projects anticipated to begin construction soon, the Town Board will be considering options for qualified members of the public who are not currently on the list to sign up. 

Please remember, when the Town holds a lottery for placement on the Housing List, it is not a guarantee that an individual will be able to obtain a home. Persons on the Housing List are NOT automatically given a home and will need to demonstrate financial viability in order to ensure that they can afford the home moving forward. The best thing that you can do whether you are currently on the Housing List or plan to be when it re-opens is to maintain good credit, remain employed and save!

AFFORDABLE HOME OWNERSHIP PROGRAM 

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