Since the launch of the mixed-use Westlake community in Palm Beach County, Minto Communities has taken steps to help prospective home buyers overcome affordability concerns. Minto Communities is the primary builder in Westlake and offers townhomes starting in the mid-$300s and single-family homes in the $400s in addition to several home buyer assistance programs geared towards first-time buyers and public servants.
The company’s Welcome Heroes program, initially intended as a limited offer in Westlake, provides a 3% discount for public servants, including active military, healthcare workers, teachers, police officers, firefighters, and government workers.
“Minto appreciates the many public servants whose efforts contribute so greatly to the well-being of our communities and neighbors,” Tonia Abrahamsson, senior vice president of sales for Minto Communities, tells Builder. “The [3%] discount can be taken off the base purchase price of the home or used toward closing costs. That’s a savings of thousands of dollars to give a helping hand to our hometown heroes.”
Since its launch in 2017, the Welcome Heroes program has helped hundreds of homeowners purchase in Westlake. Abrahamsson says for many families, the discount has represented “the difference between being able to purchase a brand-new home or not.” The program was extended in January 2020 after the success in the first three years at Westlake. At the time of the extension, more than half of the homes bought at Westlake utilized the Welcome Heroes program.
Since the start of 2021, an average of four of every ten buyers utilized the Welcome Heroes discount to buy a new home, according to Abrahamsson.
“[The Welcome Heroes program] differentiates Minto from our competitors and helps with affordability, which allows more customers to purchase homes in Westlake,” Abrahamsson says.
The City of Westlake now has a population reaching 7,000 and is “one of the fastest-growing cities” in Palm Beach County, according to Minto Communities. The mixed-use community of Westlake encompasses 3,800 acres with the capacity for 6,500 homes and 2.2 million square feet of retail, restaurant, office, and other commercial development.
In addition to the Welcome Heroes program, the City of Westlake has programs to help first-time buyers and civil servants with down payments. The city’s Housing Assistance Purchase Program Yearly (HAPPY) allows families with a household income up to $300,000 to qualify for $25,000 to $35,000 down payment assistance for homes priced below $568,577. The pool of available applicants includes teachers, educators, school district personnel, community college and university employees, police and fire personnel, health care providers, local government workers in Palm Beach County, active military members, and veterans.
“One of the biggest roadblocks a young couple or family faces when looking to buy a home is coming up with the down payment,” says John Cater, Minto Communities senior vice president. “The City of Westlake has taken the lead and developed a very bold, innovative, and sustainable program to help these folks overcome this financial challenge and achieve the American dream.”
Qualifying individuals and households are able to utilize both the down payment assistance in the HAPPY program and Minto’s Welcome Heroes program discount for their home purchase.
Abrahamsson says the Welcome Heroes program is offered solely in Westlake, in large part because Minto’s other communities are active-adult—either age-restricted or age-targeted—and the majority of residents are either retired or semi-retired.
“We do offer a separate program for veterans at our Latitude Margaritaville communities in the form of a $5,000 incentive toward options and upgrades on the purchase of a new Minto home,” Abrahamsson says.
Florida-based Minto Communities—the No. 37 company on the 2024 Builder 100 list—has active communities in Naples, West Palm Beach, Daytona Beach, and Watersound in Florida and Hilton Head in South Carolina. In 2023, the company closed 2,350 homes.
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