Homewise breaks ground on $47 million affordable housing project in Santa Fe

Housing nonprofit Homewise broke ground Tuesday on a new mixed-income development in Santa Fe, one of New Mexico’s most expensive cities.

The Los Prados development will include 161 units available for purchase on Santa Fe’s south side. Half of the homes in the building will be reserved for buyers who earn under 120% of the area median income, according to Homewise President Johanna Gilligan.

The project’s anticipated completion date is summer 2027 and the first homes will most likely be sold by early 2028, Gilligan said.

Homewise spent $47 million on the project, according to deputy CEO Rathi Casey, including $8.5 million to purchase the site from Santa Fe County and develop the land. The development is six years in the making, she said.

“Santa Fe has really been struggling with access to affordable housing for a long time,” Gilligan said. “It’s always been a higher cost market in New Mexico, but I would say COVID really turbocharged the affordability crisis.”

The most recent median price for a home within the city of Santa Fe is $614,000, according to the Santa Fe Association of Realtors, compared with $367,780 in Albuquerque.

“The prospect of affordable housing and increased recreation is a benefit for our city,” said city of Santa Fe spokesperson Peter Olson. “Santa Fe has so much need in both categories that every effort helps.”

Homewise will finance mortgages for the units, Gilligan said, and home prices will be set to roughly a third of the buyer’s income in a mortgage payment.

Homewise seeks to help New Mexicans buy homes, either through financial assistance or counseling. The need for affordable housing is so great that the organization has “hundreds, if not thousands” of people in the pipeline for their services at any given time, Gilligan said.

“We’re just starting to see a little bit of price leveling in the rental market, which is great because there have been a lot of rental developments brought online in the last several years,” Gilligan said. “But homeownership prices continue to remain stubbornly high.”

The development includes single-family homes, townhomes and condominiums with space for parking near Airport and South Meadows Roads.

Construction will take place in two phases — 97 homes will be completed during the first phase.

The Santa Fe project also includes a 5-acre park that will be owned and maintained by the city of Santa Fe, she said. The neighborhood where the development is located has the highest percentage of children living there and the least access to parks, Gilligan said.

“We're really excited about doing all the work to raise the money and do the design and construction of the park for Santa Fe residents,” Gilligan said.

Natalie Robbins covers the economy and health care for the Journal. You can reach her at nrobbins@abqjournal.com.