KINGSTON – The holidays are right around the corner, and three first-time homebuyers can look forward to the comfort this holiday season of something more meaningful for the future.
The Kingston City Land Bank celebrated the sale of 64 Van Buren Street, 174 Hasbrouck Avenue and 248 Main Street, all purchased from the city in 2020 and renovated for sale to these new owners.
“We should definitely be in and settled by Christmas,” said Paula Watson, who will close on 64 Van Buren Street November 29 with her husband.
The Kingston City Land Bank acquired these once foreclosed homes, and completely renovated them for sale to city residents at affordable prices.
“Each home is sold at 100 percent or below of AMI, or area medium income,” said Bartek Starodaj, secretary of the board of director of the Kingston City Land Bank. “So each home is affordable.”
That has given Watson some joy as Christmas soon approaches within a little more than a month.
“It’s a dream come true. I have always wanted to own a home,” said Watson. “We finally did it, me and my husband.”
And now the three-bedroom house, brightly painted white, is back on the tax rolls with a new kitchen and new flooring throughout the interior.
“They city has been sitting on them, for some cases, many years,” said Starodaj, of these structures’ former fate.
