CONCORD, N.C. – For the first time in 50 years, there’s a new affordable housing development in a Concord neighborhood. More than two dozen town homes will make home ownership a reality for some families. Twenty six new town homes now sit on two acres in the Logan Community off Lincoln Street Southwest. A crowd of people gathered Wednesday to celebrate the ribbon cutting of the first affordable housing development in the area in 50 years which is part of WeBuild Concord. “Over the last ten years or so, housing [cost] has increased by 18%, but wages only by 4%. So they just really don’t match,” Patrick Graham CEO of WeBuild Concord said. WeBuild partnered with the city and county using some American Rescue Plan Funding to complete the development. The project broke ground in 2022 with a planned opening in 2023 which got delayed. “You’re dealing with zoning, you’re dealing with engineering. So, it actually sort of makes things move a little slower than you would like,” Graham said. “There was a lot more infrastructure that had to be placed here. You’re talking about a community that’s very old. So once you get under the ground, you start to discover things like old water systems and the need for a retention pond here.” The three bedroom, two and a half bath units will soon hit the market. The affordable price starts at $235,000 for people who qualify. Everyone is welcome to apply, but priority will be given to people who live and work in Concord. The federal government considers housing affordable if the combined cost is no more than 30% of a household’s gross income. Affordable housing will be reserved for households earning at or below 80% of the area median income. A portion of the housing will be reserved for families earning up to 110% of the AMI. “We need a lot of more housing. This is just an example of what we’re doing with WeBuild Concord,” Mayor Bill Dusch said. “We’re over 100 houses now that we we have under construction or planned or have built. So we’re going to keep moving forward.” The town homes are steps away from Logan homes, a federally owned low income community where three children were killed in a fire back in August of 2022. “Right next door is the is the old housing that’s also in the process of being replaced,” Mayor Dusch said. “We’re going to be going through the whole community, not just here but throughout our town doing the same thing.” The new development provides an opportunity to make safe sanitary affordable home ownership a reality for more families in Concord. 70% of the housing will be for ownership and 30% will be for rentals. “We have to find ways to get more of our workers, elderly, others into housing and especially into home ownership, because at the end of the day, communities are more stable when you have home ownership,” Graham said.