211 Compete for 5 Homes in Thousand Oaks Lottery

When his wife brought home an application for a special Thousand Oaks low-cost home program, Patrick McDonald filled it out, sent it in and promptly forgot about it. Aware that more than 200 people would be competing by lottery for the chance to buy only five homes available under the program, he did not get his hopes up.

“I didn’t think we had a chance,” said McDonald, a 29-year-old Prudential Insurance agent who has never owned a home before. McDonald, his wife, Cheri, and their two children, David, 2, and Whitney, 1, live with her parents to save money, but the couple have long dreamed of owning their own home.

Saturday morning, McDonald did paper work and played with his children, unaware that his name was the first selected in a drawing attended by about two dozen people at Thousand Oaks City Hall. A city official drew each of the 211 names entered in the lottery in order to rank them. If the first five do not qualify, officials will work down the list until they find five who do.

‘Jumping Up and Down’

His ranking in the drawing means that, if he qualifies, McDonald will be first in line to purchase a home.

“My wife is jumping up and down. We’ve never won anything before,” said McDonald, when informed by a reporter that his name had been drawn. “If we get it, we’ll be ecstatic. Thousand Oaks is a nice place to live but you can’t afford a home unless you have $150,000 anymore. So this is a nice way for a family to start out.”

The first five people selected in the drawing will have the chance to purchase one of the homes: one four-bedroom or four three-bedroom houses valued between $100,000 and $112,000 each. The homes, on Hillcrest Drive in Thousand Oaks, were bought by the city and moved as part of a street-widening project.

The homes are made affordable for low- and moderate-income families by the city, which will carry a second trust deed on the properties that can be repaid several years after the purchase at a 3% interest rate, said Robert O’Brien, director of the city’s building and safety department.

$5,000 Down

Buyers will need only a $5,000 down payment, be able to afford monthly payments ranging from $800 to $950 and qualify for a first trust deed loan between $65,000 and $80,000, O’Brien said.

The program is open only to first-time home buyers with children. Buyers must have lived or worked in the Conejo Valley area since at least April, and must qualify either as low-income families, with total household incomes of $32,000 or less, or moderate-income families earning less than $42,000 a year, O’Brien said.

The single-story homes are about 25 years old. They come with yards, new plumbing, new roofs, carpeting and foundation, as well as a range and oven and a new stucco exterior, O’Brien said. Buyers must put in their own lawns and landscaping, he said.

The homes range from 1,124 to 1,459 square feet, O’Brien said.

It is the first time the city has sold single-family homes through its affordable housing program, O’Brien said. Thousand Oaks has previously sold low-cost condominiums and has rental properties that are subsidized by the city for low- and moderate-income families, he said.