In one Illinois village facing a tight housing supply and soaring costs, residents are being invited to gamble on something even harder to secure than a lottery win: a new house.
The Elk Grove Village Board of Trustees and Mayor Craig Johnson on Monday signed off on a public-private partnership that will raffle off chances to purchase new single-family homes in a proposed 20-home development.
The raffle program is “the first of its kind,” Johnson said in a news release. The houses will be constructed on a 2.6-acre property the village purchased last year and plans to sell at cost to a developer for $1 million.
The proposed development will go to the village’s Plan Commission next month. If approved, it would be the first single-family home development in the village in two decades.
The raffle is open only to current residents of Elk Grove Village, which had a population of about 32,000 and about 8,000 single-family homes. Buyers must commit to living in the homes for at least five years.
“We don’t want professional sales people coming in and buying these homes up,” Johnson said during the May 26 board meeting.
The proposed single-family homes in the development range in size from 1,300 square feet to more than 2,000 square feet, and, as part of the partnership, would remain “moderately priced,” according to the village, ranging from $466,000 to $508,000. Median family income in the community is about $90,000, the website states.
“When you compare what you buy homes in Elk Grove for, it’s a deal beyond belief,” Johnson said, also noting that elected officials are excluded from the raffle. “This is truly to give the people of Elk Grove a chance.”
To participate in the raffle, applicants must provide a mortgage pre-approval letter, proof of residency and a $2,500 deposit. If chosen in the raffle, which is slated for July, residents will have five minutes to choose from among unclaimed lots in the development.
Johnson said he hopes the raffle program can become a blueprint for other localities with unused parcels of land. “When you find parcels of land like that at corners, and we can convert it into housing — moderately priced housing for people — that can go a long way toward fixing the problem of [not] having housing people can, one, afford, and two, get.”
