Welcome to Diamond State CLT

Delaware’s statewide community land trust

Homeownership changes lives.

Homeownership contributes to families’ and communities’ economic stability and growth. For children, homeownership is tied to success in school and life.

Unfortunately, housing costs in Delaware have placed homeownership out of reach of many hard working families. Throughout our state there is a growing gap between the buying power of people’s wages and the cost of a quality home.

This is where DSCLT comes in. Formed in 2006, Diamond State Community Land Trust is helping families own homes at prices they can afford. DSCLT invests funds in every transaction, “buying down” the purchase price of the homes.

DSCLT homeowners gain equity and financial stability, and Delaware gains homes that are affordable for generations to come. We serve families in all three Delaware counties - Kent, New Castle, and Sussex.

DSCLT serves families earning household incomes at or below 80% of Area Median Income (AMI) based on family size.
See County by County Income Limit Chart.

DSCLT News and Views

Diamond State CLT Finalizes its First 10-Year Business Plan for 2008-2017

OUR GOAL: 350 Permanently Affordable Homes in 10 Years

Today, Delaware has 320,000 households. By 2017 this is expected to increase to 365,000.  About 100,000 of current households, 1/3 of Delaware’s population, falls in the income ranges served by DSCLT. Of these 100,000 households, 44,000 are “cost-burdened.” That is, they pay more than 30% of their incomes for housing. Many of these households could benefit from owning a community land trust home. Read more in our July newsletter...

What Foreclosure Crisis? Community Land Trusts Offer Secure Homeownership

The current foreclosure crisis that is sweeping our country illustrates how vulnerable homeowners are—especially low- and moderate-income households. Some reports estimate that over 40 percent of foreclosures are occurring with homeowners who had good, 30-year, low-interest loans in place before they got caught up in the refinancing frenzy promoted by many mortgage providers. Unwisely, many homeowners switched their stable mortgages for other mortgage products that were, simply put, too good to be true.

In addition to the families that refinanced, there are many others now facing the prospect of foreclosure. Some people bought homes they could not afford as their primary residence betting that the rapid escalation in home values would continue. Others bought second and third homes expecting to resell within a short time-frame and realize a quick profit.
Read the entire article by Van Temple on www.rooflines.org