All of Habitat for Humanity of St. Augustine/St. Johns County’s (Habitat St. Johns) homes sell for their appraised values.

Although only about 50% percentage of our homes sell for $267,000 or less (St. Johns County’s Workforce Housing maximum price), in reality, all of our homes currently sell for under $280,000.

Our two-bedroom one-bath homes are appraising and selling for about $245,000 and our three-bedroom two-bath homes are appraising and selling for $275,000. None of our Volusia Woods homes sell for more than the appraised value. We have strong partners in the community who help us build these homes affordably. Baker Distributing provides all the HVAC systems for our houses. St. Augustine Kitchen and Bath provides the granite countertops for our kitchens and bathrooms, Whirlpool provides the refrigerators and stoves at no cost for all our homes and sells us microwaves and dishwashers at a huge discount. Local churches and fraternal organizations including Memorial Presbyterian Church, St. Anastasia Catholic Church, Anastasia Baptist Church, Church on the Rock, Knights of Columbus, and Freemasons purchase washers and dryers for our future homeowners. We also receive other discounted and in-kind donations.

In addition, local business owners including Raintree Restaurant, O.C. White’s Seafood and Spirits, Publix Charities, and The St. Augustine Distillery all have sponsored multiple homes in recent years.

Moreover, our volunteers (regular weekly volunteers and other individuals and volunteer groups) help us by keeping labor costs lower. We also have volunteers who help mentor future homeowners and help out in our office.

We sell our homes at the appraised value, so we do not negatively impact the home values in the areas where we are building. We do not want to be responsible for “bringing down property values.” In fact, our Habitat neighborhoods actually help vitalize the areas where we build. We also use local subcontractors and supply houses to support our local economy.

The Workforce Housing designation enables us to keep our costs down, because it allows us to build on slightly smaller lots. While this does allow for more density in the area, it also enables us to build on less land, therefore not needing to build on larger lots.

Some other benefits of a Habitat for Humanity community:
We bring infrastructure to areas that have gone without for generations. When we build homes here in St. Johns County, we ensure all our homes have city or county water, sewer, and power. The property where we are building Volusia Woods cost Habitat St. Johns about $300,000, but the infrastructure costs were over $2,000,000. This expense limits the number of homes we can build.

The newly installed infrastructure at Volusia Woods allowed 18 existing West Augustine residents to connect to water and sewer. This removed the need for those residents to use and maintain well-water and decrepit old septic tanks.

Habitat St. Johns homeowners rarely sell their homes. This is largely because if they were to sell, they would likely pay double or triple what they are paying to find something comparable. We are unaware of any other homebuilder constructing and selling single-family homes in St. Johns County for under $280,000.

New Habitat St. Johns homes cannot be sold for at least two years based on St. Johns County’s Workforce Housing designation. Additionally, no one can buy more than one Habitat for Humanity home, and Habitat St. Johns homes cannot be rented (long-term or short-term).