If you find home prices still out of reach in Fort Worth, here’s a new option
A new pathway to homeownership for those of modest incomes will soon be available in Fort Worth.
The Fort Worth Community Land Trust held its first open house Sept. 23, at 4092 Merida Ave., to preview homes in Carroll Park that will be for sale using a land trust model.
In a land trust model, a family or individual purchases a home but a land trust organization retains ownership of the ground on which the home is built, effectively reducing the price of the home. Homeowners agree that if they later sell their homes, they will do so at a restricted price to keep the home affordable.
In August 2023, the city and the Rainwater Charitable Foundation worked together to buy 15 acres in south Fort Worth that had been student housing for Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. The property is on West Drew Street and McCart Avenue, an area known as Carroll Park.
The Fort Worth Community Land trust formed in 2023 in partnership with the Rainwater Charitable Foundation, the city and the Housing Finance Corp., the housing development arm of the city, to provide long term and sustainable homeownership opportunities for Fort Worth residents and families.
Fort Worth Community Land Trust is partnering with Housing Channel, a nonprofit housing organization, to develop the homes.
There were 142 original homes in Carroll Park, and the plan is for 54 to be renovated as duplexes. The rest will be demolished, and 146 new single-family homes and townhomes will be constructed, for a total of 200 homes.
The first homes will be on the market by the end of the year, with a second batch finished by next summer. The entire project should finish by 2029.
The only completed home shown during the open house was a two-bedroom, one-bathroom 640-square-foot home starting at $135,000.
The renovated homes will keep the external structure of the original homes with new heating and cooling systems and new roofing. They will have new doors, windows, fresh paint, hardwood floors, luxury vinyl plank flooring and remodeled bathrooms. The kitchens will have stainless appliances, new cabinets, and quartz countertops.
The newly constructed homes will range from one to three bedrooms at 640 to 1,380 square feet. Prices for the homes will be within the 60 to 120 percent affordability range of the area median income.
Gaps in home affordability in Fort Worth
The problem of affordable home ownership in Fort Worth was highlighted in a 2023 report of the city’s Neighborhood Conservation Plan and Housing Affordability Strategy. It showed that a family making the median income in Fort Worth cannot afford the median priced home in most areas of the city.
In 2021, the median household income in Fort Worth was $64,567, and the maximum home price that household could afford was $246,000, even though the median sale price for a single family home was $296,000, according to the report.
The home affordability problem is magnified for Black and Hispanic people. In 2024, the median income in Fort Worth was up to $77,082, according to the city, but for Black families it was $55,317 and for Hispanic families it was $68,874. The median income for white families in Fort Worth was $94,421, the city said.
To be eligible for these homes households must earn between 60 percent to 120 percent of the area median income, or between $64,020 to $128,050, adjusted for household size. Households between 60 to 80 percent of area median income may also qualify for up to $25,000 in down payment assistance through the city’s Homebuyer Assistance Program.
To start the process of being a homeowner in Carroll Park, prospective buyers should attend an open house, register for a Zoom information session and a HUD-approved homebuyer education course through one of the Fort Worth Community Land Trust’s community partners.
Future open house dates: are Sept. 27, 2–5 p.m.; Oct. 8, 4:30–6 p.m.; and Oct. 18, 11 a.m.–3 p.m. Spanish language representatives will be available.
Information sessions are scheduled for Sept. 27 at 11 a.m. at Martin Luther King Community Center, 5565 Truman Drive; Oct. 7, at 10 a.m. on Zoom; and Oct. 21, at 10 a.m. on Zoom (Spanish).
For more information about Carroll Park or to register for an upcoming information session visit fortworthclt.org.
The Land Trust has plans for a second housing development in the Renaissance Heights community, on the southeast side of the city. The goal is to develop 236 single family homes in the Renaissance Heights community.
This story was originally published September 24, 2025 at 4:45 PM with the headline "If you find home prices still out of reach in Fort Worth, here’s a new option."
