Increasing Affordable Homeownership in New Mexico

Home­wise^®, a com­mu­ni­ty devel­op­ment finan­cial insti­tu­tion, pro­vides an array of home­buy­ing ser­vices in its mis­sion to increase home­own­er­ship among low- and mod­er­ate-income fam­i­lies. The Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion recent­ly award­ed the New Mex­i­co non­prof­it a $3 mil­lion impact invest­ment from its loan port­fo­lio as well as a grant for gen­er­al oper­at­ing support

“Home­own­er­ship pro­vides not only the sta­ble hous­ing chil­dren need to thrive but also an oppor­tu­ni­ty for fam­i­lies in dis­in­vest­ed com­mu­ni­ties to build long-term wealth,” said Tra­cy Kar­tye, direc­tor of Impact Invest­ments at the Casey Foun­da­tion. ​“Home­wise has an impres­sive track record of facil­i­tat­ing afford­able home­own­er­ship and achiev­ing mea­sur­able results.”

A One-Stop Resource for Afford­able Housing

Medi­an house­hold wealth dif­fers sig­nif­i­cant­ly across demo­graph­ic groups. Home­wise, found­ed in 1986, is com­mit­ted to clos­ing these dis­par­i­ties by increas­ing the per­cent­age of Black and His­pan­ic house­holds that own their homes. In 2024, the non­prof­it made 61% of its loans to low- and mod­er­ate-income house­holds with 74% of Home­wise bor­row­ers iden­ti­fy­ing as peo­ple of color.

A one-stop resource for afford­able hous­ing, Home­wise offers its clients:

• free finan­cial coach­ing and cred­it coun­sel­ing to increase home pur­chas­ing power;
• access to salaried, full-time real­tors who are not incen­tivized by commissions;
• down pay­ment assistance;
• mort­gages with­out pri­vate mort­gage insur­ance to increase buy­ing power;
• mort­gage refi­nanc­ing to low­er bor­row­ing costs; and
• afford­able loans for home improvements.

The nonprofit’s home­buy­ing mod­el sim­pli­fies com­plex financ­ing and sub­sidy sources, guides clients suc­cess­ful­ly through the pur­chas­ing process and estab­lish­es an ongo­ing rela­tion­ship and a deep sense of trust. The out­comes asso­ci­at­ed with these loans are indus­try- lead­ing. For instance: In 2024, 98% of Homewise’s clients paid their mort­gages on time. 

Real Estate Devel­op­ment and Com­mu­ni­ty Revitalization 

To meet the need for afford­able hous­ing stock and diverse hous­ing types, Home­wise also devel­ops hous­ing for home­own­er­ship. In San­ta Fe, where the cost of homes exceeds the reach of 90% of the city’s res­i­dents, Home­wise pur­chased a 216-acre prop­er­ty called Tier­ra Con­tenta. This prop­er­ty will grow the city’s hous­ing sup­ply by 1,500 units — all priced below the medi­an cost of local homes. A sub­stan­tial por­tion of these units — 40% — will be reserved for low-income families.

The non­prof­it fur­ther deliv­ers afford­able hous­ing for home­own­er­ship through its pur­chase and ren­o­va­tion of dis­tressed prop­er­ties, which are then sold to low- and mod­er­ate-income home­buy­ers. For exam­ple: In Albuquerque’s Alam­osa neigh­bor­hood, Home­wise ren­o­vat­ed a vacant sin­gle-fam­i­ly unit into an afford­able, ener­gy-effi­cient home, ulti­mate­ly help­ing to increase sur­round­ing prop­er­ty values. 

Home­wise designs its work around the knowl­edge that desir­able hous­ing requires green space, walk­a­bil­i­ty and ameni­ties that sup­port vibrant and wel­com­ing neigh­bor­hoods. Its com­mu­ni­ty devel­op­ment strat­e­gy includes invest­ments in child care facil­i­ties, restau­rants, health care clin­ics and work­force devel­op­ment orga­ni­za­tions. Its most recent invest­ment is in Bare­las — one of Albuquerque’s old­est neigh­bor­hoods. Col­lab­o­rat­ing with the Street Food Insti­tute, a non­prof­it that pro­vides busi­ness and culi­nary train­ing for New Mex­i­cans, Home­wise con­vert­ed a com­mer­cial prop­er­ty into the Bare­las Com­mu­ni­ty Kitchen. This facil­i­ty hous­es a com­mis­sary kitchen for food trucks, a culi­nary class­room, and afford­able office space and stu­dios for local artists.

Col­lab­o­ra­tive Funding

Home­wise is a core grantee of the Casey Foundation’s Nation­al Com­mu­ni­ty Strate­gies team, which works with local part­ners to improve neigh­bor­hoods by strength­en­ing com­mu­ni­ty safe­ty and pro­mot­ing access to good schools, afford­able homes and job opportunities.

In New Mex­i­co, Casey has been close­ly part­ner­ing with oth­er afford­able hous­ing fun­ders, includ­ing the Ancho­rum Health Foun­da­tion, the San­ta Fe Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion and the Thorn­burg Foun­da­tion, as well as the city and coun­ty of San­ta Fe and the New Mex­i­co Coali­tion to End Home­less­ness. This col­lab­o­ra­tion — called the Com­mu­ni­ty Hous­ing & Home­less­ness Pre­ven­tion Fund — focus­es on the San­ta Fe metro area and address­es the entire hous­ing con­tin­u­um. Its work spans every­thing from pre­vent­ing home­less­ness — espe­cial­ly for young peo­ple — to increas­ing the sup­ply of afford­able rental units and homes for sale to low- and mod­er­ate-income families.

In north­ern New Mex­i­co, which has a large Native Amer­i­can pop­u­la­tion, the Foun­da­tion is part­ner­ing with nation­al and region­al fun­ders to sup­port the North­ern New Mex­i­co Youth Fund. This fund works to ensure that under­served youth, ages 13 to 29, have access to the skills, expe­ri­ences and con­nec­tions they need to thrive at school, work and home.

“Part of what we’ve been try­ing to do in New Mex­i­co is find ways to align our grant mak­ing and impact invest­ing to sup­port local­ly dri­ven pri­or­i­ties and solu­tions,” said Charles Rutheis­er, a senior asso­ciate at the Foundation.