If you’ve been paying attention to local news over the last year, you know it’s no secret Santa Fe is in an affordable housing crisis. Headline after headline after headline illustrate rising home prices that are putting homeownership out of reach for many.
As reported in The New Mexican, between March 2021 and March 2022, the median home price in the city and county of Santa Fe jumped 11.5 percent, from $558,250 to $631,000.
That comes on the heels of a 22 percent increase reported by the Santa Fe Association of Realtors the previous year, meaning that in the last two years, the median price of a home has risen by over one-third or $170,000.
That’s why Homewise recently took a major step in its ongoing mission to improve affordable housing access in Santa Fe. We purchased 22 acres of vacant land in South Meadows Road to build Los Prados, a new community that will offer families vital opportunities to buy affordable homes. And as part of the development, we’re also building a 6-acre park that will serve the south side. We’re doing all this because it fits within our mission to create positive change for New Mexicans by developing high-quality, affordable homes — especially at a time when the median home price in Santa Fe is at a historic high.
Homewise has a decadeslong track record of helping Santa Feans become homeowners, and the organization is committed to helping ease our city’s affordable housing crisis.
That’s why we’re going above and beyond the city’s affordable housing standards. Fully half of the homes constructed will meet the city’s affordable guidelines —
2.5 times more affordable units than the city requires.
And 100 percent of the homes will be priced well below Santa Fe’s median home price, ensuring all the homes will benefit Santa Fe’s workforce. Our proposal includes homes that will be affordable to a wide range of Santa Feans, including those living in apartments and mobile home parks on the south side who haven’t had the opportunity to own their home and build long-term wealth.
Since we first went under contract to purchase the empty land, we’ve worked diligently with the Santa Fe Planning Commission and land use departments to refine our development proposal and make adjustments as necessary. We also took the time to obtain extensive input from the surrounding neighborhoods to hear from and address the needs and preferences of hundreds of community residents.
We heard folks loud and clear: the south side needs a real, functioning park. So we revised our initial plans to center the new affordable housing development around a neighborhood park that will be maintained by the city, a park similar in size to the Las Acequias or Patrick Smith parks. The park will also be integrated into the Acequia Bike Trail corridor with connections to the Santa Fe River Trail and the Tierra Contenta trail system, enabling safe bike and pedestrian access to the Southside Branch Library, SWAN Park, all the way to downtown.
We’ve heard some arguments that by building more affordable homes and a new park on South Meadows Road, we will eliminate an existing park. But that argument misrepresents the property’s current status and condition. Right now, the South Meadows parcel sits vacant, with plenty of cactus, but no play structures or sporting and picnic areas, no safe place for children to play, and no public access. What we’re proposing is a neighborhood park that will bring real value to the entire community — not just the immediate neighbors or residents of new affordable homes we propose to build.
Improving access to affordable housing in Santa Fe has never been more critical than it is right now. That’s why we moved ahead with our plans to purchase the vacant land at South Meadows, despite not receiving a final vote yet in the Planning Commission on the project. We won’t accept the status quo and wait in vain for home prices to ease.
Through our work, we have heard from countless Santa Feans working to find and own affordable homes. We believe the Planning Commission and the City Council have heard those calls for action, too, and will ultimately do what’s good and what’s right for Santa Feans. With all of us working together, we can tackle the housing affordability crisis head on.
