Homeowner Stories

Meet some of our homeowners as they tell their stories below...

Bryon

If someone told me three years ago that I would have my own house and my own yard in the borough of State College, well let's just say I never thought it was possible.

Then, my friend Brent told me about the Borough's First-time Homeowner's Program and how it might be good for me to have a place of my own, something I've always dreamed of. Going through that process was both educational and inspirational. My dream might actually be coming true.

Once I was through all aspects of the program, I was at the point where I could start looking for a home. The condos and the townhouses that I qualified for were nice, but unfortunately not for me. The idea of not being able to be outside in a yard was not appealing to me. Then one day in the spring of 2006 I received a call from a group called the State College Community Land Trust. They received my name from the Borough and that I was at the proper place in the process to look at a house they were selling on Westerly Parkway.

Cathy, the SCCLT Director at the time explained that others who looked at the house decided it was too close to a busy road, not large enough for a family, or didn't like the idea of living in a duplex. I however, saw a dream come true. I saw a yard with tons of landscape potential. I saw a backyard that I could fence in for a four-legged addition. I saw three bedrooms, one that would make a great home office. I saw a full attic for storage. I saw a basement that would make a great entertainment room. I saw endless design and color opportunities in each room. I saw a place to build memories, host dinner parties, and celebrate with loved ones. But most of all, I saw an opportunity to be a part of something meaningful in my community.

As a State College Community Land Trust Homeowner, I have been given the opportunity to become an active member of my community by serving on the Board of Directors. I have made wonderful new friends. I have been given an opportunity to build equity for my future.

Almost three years later, I could not be happier in my home.

Tom & Kristen

Our search for a house started and ended with the same little yellow house. Tom was walking back to his current apartment and saw a borough house with a "for sale" sign. It got him thinking about how great it would be to own our own house. With only two of us, we didn't need a lot of space, but we also wanted the perks of having a yard and garage.

Within a day, the yellow house was sold, but our house search had officially begun. Most of the borough houses had great locations, but were well outside our price range. We started expanding our search to the surrounding areas and visited a few condos. After a few months of searching with no success, Tom was walking down the same street and saw the same yellow house for sale again. It had a Land Trust sign in the yard, and he immediately visited the website.

We found that the Land Trust was the perfect match for us. We could not have afforded the house on our own, and it needed more work than we could have handled. And after months of searching and a few weeks of Land Trust applications and orientations, we finally had the little house that started it all.

Buying this house is one of the best decisions we've ever made. We love having a space of our own in the heart of the borough, close enough to Penn State for Tom to walk to classes. Both of our families are football fans, and we're excited to finally have space for all the seasonal visitors - and since this is our first home, we're quickly learning the joys (and sorrows) of home ownership. Tom has already put his mechanical skills to use on a variety of projects.

We're so thankful to have found the Land Trust. It helped us do something that we never could have done on our own. We look forward to many years and many projects in this house.

Jason & Deeanne

"We can't afford to pay our current rent and save to buy a house - we need to do something", I said to my wife Deeanne. The apartment we were living in had been a good deal when we first moved in and heat was included, but had gotten more costly when the heating system was changed and we started paying for fuel oil in addition to the rent. We were also starting to outgrow it as our second child had recently been born. Thanks to the State College Community Land Trust we're now blessed to be living in our own single family home with a monthly payment that's less than the rent we were paying!

Friends of ours heard about our situation and told us about how they had recently purchased their house and that the Borough of State College has some great programs available to families with relatively low income who were hoping to buy their first home. I found some information on the borough web site, and sure enough the programs sounded great! I made the call and was soon being helped through the application process. We received a crash course in buying a home, details of the programs available to us as well as financial counseling.

Once our application was approved we charged off into the turbulent Borough housing market in search of something in our price range. After searching for almost half a year on our own we were pretty worn out and discouraged and we decided to give up.

"I just saw a really nice house for sale through the Land Trust!", I said to Deeanne in the spring of 2005. A quick call to the SCCLT revealed that someone had just decided to buy the house. However the Land Trust was in the process of buying a similar house on West Beaver Ave which we took a good look at soon after.

This house had lots of things we needed including sturdy play equipment in the backyard for our children. When we decided to go ahead and buy it we were excited and scared at the same time. To close the deal we needed to find replacement tenants to sign a new lease for our apartment and that search came down to the wire.

When we finally found a couple willing to sign the lease we were thrilled! We moved into our new home in the fall of 2005 and we've enjoyed getting to know our neighbors and becoming part of the neighborhood. One of the first projects we did on our home was convert the formal dining room back into a bedroom in order to make room for our third child that Deeanne was just pregnant with when we first moved in.

Though neither Deeanne nor I are from Pennsylvania we have grown to love State College since we met while we were students at Penn State and we hope to live here for a long time. Our three children also enjoy all that State College has to offer and they love to play in our wonderful house and yard!