Affordable housing expands in Fort Worth; homes start at $135,000
People priced out of Fort Worth’s home market will soon have affordable options.
The Fort Worth Community Land Trust launched the Community Developers Program on Tuesday afternoon with an event at the Amon Carter Center at Lena Pope, 3200 Sanguine St. The program is supported by $1.1 million in philanthropic funding from JPMorgan Chase and builds on partnerships with the Rainwater Charitable Foundation, the city of Fort Worth and the Housing Channel.
The program will equip community-based builders and nonprofit developers with training, technical assistance, and access to land to build or rehabilitate homes in established neighborhoods using the community land trust model.
Fort Worth grew more than 30%, outpacing the Texas average, between 2010 and 2024, according to the Fort Worth Community Land Trust. Home prices in Fort Worth have surged by more than 50% in five years, and 11,000 homeowners and 12,000 renters in the city are cost-burdened, meaning they’re spending more than 30% of their income on housing.
The Fort Worth Community Land Trust was formed in 2023 to help create affordable housing. In a land trust model, the trust retains ownership of the ground on which the home is built, effectively reducing the price. Homeowners agree that if they later sell their homes, they will do so at a restricted price to keep the home affordable.
The Community Developers Program will expand the affordable housing pipeline. The Fort Worth Community Land Trust has bought land from the city and will gift that to community-based builders and nonprofit developers as long as they build on it for community land trust buyers. Land was purchased throughout the city, including in Morningside, Hillside and Stop Six.
The goal is to have 12 to 15 new homes by the end of the year, according to Becky Bass, executive director of the Fort Worth Community Land Trust.
Mayor Mattie Parker said the collaboration will expand access to sustainable homeownership and helps ensure that affordability is preserved over the long term.
“There are countless neighborhoods all over Fort Worth, where you can see that happening, where you see infield development of homes that were no longer cared for being turned around, and we want the community land trust model to be at the center of that work for homeownership,” she said.
Homes available in Carroll Park
The first homes of Carroll Park, the Community Land Trust’s 15-acre community in south Fort Worth, are on the market. When completed, the development will include more than 200 rehabilitated homes beginning at $135,000. Buyers earning 60% to 80% of the area’s median income will receive down payment assistance.
J.T. Aughinbaugh, vice chair of the JPMorgan Chase market leadership team in North Texas, said Fort Worth was an important market for the financial service firm.
“Housing affordability is so important to the entire community,” Aughinbaugh said. “The economic prosperity of the entire community, all first-time home builders to lower income workers, if all members of our community do not have access to housing affordability and housing attainability, it’s a drag on everybody.”
