Construction on a 36 single-family housing development in Hampden wrapped up this week, and purchase agreements are already underway for about one-third of the homes.
Hampden developer and owner of S.E. MacMillan Company Stan MacMillan built a 36-house development called Stearns Farm Subdivision, located at 218 Main Road South in Hampden. Twenty-three of the single-family homes cost $270,000 and must be sold to buyers who make under $97,560, as established by the Affordable Homeownership Program, a zero-interest loan program Gov. Janet Mills launched in 2022.
The price-capped homes are roughly 1,400-square-foot ranch homes with two bedrooms, one bathroom and a garage, according to MacMillan.
MacMillan said the development has garnered plenty of interested buyers, some of whom are older adults looking to downsize from a larger house. Others, however, are younger first-time homebuyers looking to enter the housing market.
About 13 people have purchase and sale agreements for some of the properties, MacMillan said, but none of those sales were finalized as of Thursday.
The Affordable Homeownership Program, which is administered by the Maine State Housing Authority, offers $10 million in forgivable loans to encourage developers to build moderately priced single family homes. The $10 million program is funded by the American Rescue Plan Act.
The loans can pay for land acquisition, site development costs, infrastructure costs such as roads, utilities, sewers and sidewalks, and home construction, according to MaineHousing.
Developers who are accepted into the Affordable Homeownership Program must set aside some housing in the development to be sold to buyers who earn up to 120 percent of Area Median Income, which is set by MaineHousing. For Hampden and other Bangor-area communities, this translates to a $97,560 annual income.
Though MacMillan already has a robust property development portfolio, he decided to explore bringing more moderately priced housing options because “I thought it’d be nice for the community.”
Hampden’s planning board and town council approved MacMillan’s development plans last year and construction began in August of 2022.
Since the 1980s, MacMillan has built single-family subdivisions in Bangor, Brewer, Veazie and Hampden, as well as 78 townhouse apartments in Bangor and 48 townhouse apartments in Orono.
MacMillan also developed Chickadee Lane, a 32-house subdivision down the road from the new Stearns Farm property.
Aside from the 23 two-bedroom homes with capped costs, four other homes in the development have three bedrooms and two bathrooms, MacMillan said.
