.png/:/cr=t:0%25,l:0%25,w:100%25,h:100%25/rs=w:1209,cg:true)
Rural Homes makes homeownership a reality for Colorado's workforce. As a nonprofit housing developer, we partner with trusted organizations to deliver high-quality, affordable homes using a unique cost-engineered model, detailed below. We're redefining what homeownership can look like while building neighborhoods that provide stability for families and strengthen entire communities.
Community Led Process
We build neighborhoods that reflect the needs and desires of a community. To do this, we gather direct input from residents, local officials, housing advocates, and business owners. This feedback drives a development process that integrates local strengths, resulting in neighborhoods that improve economic, social, and environmental well-being.
Optimized Land
We reduce the overall property values of our homes by securing donated or subsidized land from partners like municipalities, school districts, or private donors. Furthermore, our ideal site has strict criteria in order to control the per-unit costs of building the homes. It is flat, infill, and adjacent to existing civic infrastructure in order to minimize grading, new street construction, or the extension of water and sewer lines, all of which can dramatically change the cost of a project.
Low Cost Construction Financing
Rural Homes partners with Colorado’s community organizations and philanthropic entities that are interested in new approaches to building workforce housing. We’ve raised construction finance loans with 0.5% interest and below by working with philanthropic funders such as: The Colorado Health Foundation, El Pomar Foundation, Donnell Kay Foundation, Kenneth King Foundation, Caring for Colorado, Dakota Foundation and Boettcher Foundation.
Furthermore, we partner with State Organizations like the Department of Local Affairs, The Division of Housing and the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority to further lower costs through loan and grant programs. We also pursue additional “gap financing” funding to subsidize additional costs, with the end goal of reducing the final price of each unit built.
Efficient Modular Construction
Standard stick-built construction is expensive and inefficient: on average, 30% of the material purchased for home construction ends up in a dumpster. In addition to this, the local labor force is (mostly) involved in high-end home construction, so even if subcontractors are compelled to work on affordable housing, the market sets a price of labor too expensive to build affordably.
By partnering with innovative Colorado companies such as Fading West (modular construction), we have lowered on-site construction costs and reduced building time. Fading West optimizes material use, efficiently building 85% of the homes in their factory and shipping them to the site in separate modules, allowing us to save money and reduce the time it takes to build the house.
Affordable Buyer Financing
Rural Homes works with lending partners and local foundations to lower interest rates and provide down payment assistance to homebuyers, essentially lowering the cost of the homes and making them more accessible to folks with lower incomes.
Our Mission Statement
Rural Homes empowers Colorado's local workforce with affordable housing and childcare solutions through innovative partnerships and building methods, fostering healthier and more resilient communities.