The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Mt. Crested Butte council sees no reason to save it
With the understanding that Gunnison Valley housing has become increasingly—almost alarmingly—affordable in the last few years, the Mt. Crested Butte Town Council elected to let one of its own “affordable” housing units go into foreclosure.
Town Manager Joe Fitzpatrick told the council at a regular meeting on Tuesday, March 20 that the owner of a one-bedroom deed restricted condo in Pitchfork had defaulted on his mortgage, with about $100,000 left on the note.
“We are losing some of our affordable housing units in the county due to foreclosure,” Fitzpatrick said, “and we’ll be losing one of our own if we don’t decide to do something about it.”
He said it was possible that the lender would be willing to sell the unit—one of 22 affordable units in the Pitchfork subdivision, along Gothic Road—for the balance of the mortgage, if the council wanted to keep it in the affordable housing inventory. The town of Mt. Crested Butte has more than 70 affordable housing units currently in its inventory, and this isn’t the first one to go into foreclosure.
Councilman Gary Keiser suggested that, if the council was so inclined, it could draw the funds from the town’s housing fund, which stands at about $347,000, to buy the property, which was built in 2000.
Fitzpatrick agreed that the council could do just that, but added the plan had been to use money from the housing fund to build another triplex when the need for affordable housing returned. For now though, he said, the market demand for affordable housing is nearly nonexistent.
“Multiple units in that building have been on the market for a period of time with absolutely no buyers,” Fitzpatrick said. “You can go out and buy free market units for just about what you’d pay for an affordable unit and not have the restrictions. There just isn’t much demand for it. Frankly, there are other, more attractive options on the open market right now.”
The town of Mt. Crested Butte’s inventory of more than 70 affordable housing units includes 16 lots capable of holding 28 housing units set aside for that purpose in Pitchfork.
Councilman Andrew Gitin remembers a similar unit being pretty small. “That unit is, what, about 800 square feet. I’m not sure it’s worth what’s left on the loan. It might be [worth] closer to $70,000 or $80,000.”
Fitzpatrick added that the affordable housing restrictions—requiring an owner who meets the right residency and income requirements—would not apply if the property were sold by the bank.
That didn’t seem to faze the council, which stayed pretty quiet as Fitzpatrick looked for direction.
“I guess that means we’re going to let it go,” Mayor pro tem David Clayton said.
