By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
The Northwest Kansas Planning and Development Commission has decided to discontinue a housing program that included purchasing homes from the NCK Tech building program.
The program has become too costly, said Randall Hrabe, Northwest Kansas Planning and Development Commission executive director.
The commission has purchased two homes from the program in Beloit, three from Hays and two from Goodland. The two homes that were built in Beloit have sold.
The commission has about 130 houses or duplexes across northwest Kansas as part of its housing program and thought buying the technical program houses would be cheaper than building the homes themselves, Hrabe said.
Of the homes from the Hays program, all three of the homes have yet to be sold. The homes located in Hays were finished in the spring of 2017 and 2018, but were only moved to their lots this April. Hrabe said the commission had difficulty finding lots and someone to move the homes in the Hays area.
Work is still being done on the two homes in Hays, but Hrabe said he hopes those homes will be finished and be able to be put on the market within the next month.
The three-bedroom homes are at 1337 285th Ave. and 1941 Leiker Road. The house on 285th Avenue is 1,500 square feet with a full basement and a double garage. The house on Leiker is is the 1,920 square feet, also with a full basement and a double-car garage. Both houses are located on 2 acres.
The house in WaKeeney is 1.920 square feet with a fully finished basement, a double-car garage, a full-length deck on the south side, stainless steel appliances installed and three bedrooms upstairs and two downstairs. It has city water and sewer and is on a paved street. It is located on four acres.
The commission also has a house in WaKeeney; however, it received more than $47,000 in damages during a major hail storm that hit that community in 2017. Repairs are still being made to that house.
The commission originally received funds from the Dane G. Hansen Foundation for the program. The plan for the project was to purchase the homes in the spring, move them over the summer and have them sold shortly after that. Then the money from the sale of one home could be invested in another technical school home the next spring.
“Just because it has taken us longer to get them moved, get them set … What we found out was that we are having to finance two years,” Hrabe said. “With three vo-techs, we are talking about $800,000 invested in these.”
Hrabe said the commission is having difficulty meeting the market demand.
Once the homes have been moved, placed on foundations, and sewer and HVAC installed, the commission has about $300,000 in each house. The City of Goodland gave the commission the lots on which the two vo-tech houses there were built, but the commission’s cost still ran about $250,000.
Hrabe said most entry-level homebuyers in northwest Kansas are looking to spend between $135,000 and $150,000. However, Hrabe noted the market in Hays is a little bit stronger.
“We, as a nonprofit, can’t continue to lose money on them,” Hrabe said of the houses.
The commission is not the only developer that is faced with the challenge of this gap. There is a demand for entry-level homes, but builders can’t construct the homes for what consumers are able to pay.
Hrabe said the commission is continuing to build duplexes and rentals in the region. This includes six new duplexes in Russell and a new tri-plex that was just finished in Grainfield. Hrabe said the hope is seniors will downsize into the smaller rental units, allowing families to purchase and move into existing housing stock.
Hrabe said anyone interested in purchasing the two homes in Hays or the home in WaKeeney can contact him at 785-421-2151 or [email protected].
Corrected 6:46 p.m. Sunday, June 30.