Financing Provided for Affordable Housing in Novato, CA

With high-end homes not moving quickly throughout the California housing market, attention is being shifted to the opposite end of the real estate spectrum.

Tamalpais Bank said Wednesday that it provided financing to HartMarin, a private developer which will use the $3.7 million loan to build eight affordable, green homes in Novato. The bank said it’s the first such project to be built in Marin County without public financing.

The project, Virginia Grove, is at 1845 Virginia Avenue and will be comprised of eight detached, single-family homes. It will aim to help the demographic that must focus on bad credit mortgages.

Four of the houses will be deed restricted to lower income families. The homes will be priced at approximately $350,000 to $400,000, about 45 percent of the median home price in Novato in 2006. The other four will be priced at $675,000 to $725,000, about 80 percent of the Novato median price for similar homes.

Rob Hart, the developer and a fifth generation Marin resident, said the homes have been designed to meet green standards in the use of sustainable, energy efficient material.

“A major problem in Marin County is the lack of affordable housing,” said Mark Garwood, CEO and president of Tamalpais Bank and chairman of the Marin Workforce Housing Trust. “This is an important step toward demonstrating that entry-level-ownership workforce housing can be financed and built without public funding.”