A collaboration of area nonprofits and the city are paying for the construction of 30 pre-built homes around Fairview Elementary School.
The development is in the Hope Zone off Salem Avenue. As of December 2025, two homes are in place on McCleary Avenue.
It's part of the Pathways to Homeownership Initiative. Each unit is about 1,100 square feet with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, back yards and some will have an attached garage. The average price will be about $170,000.
Ivy Glover is director of community impact and development for Wright-Patt Credit Union. She’s also the interim executive director of the Wright-Patt Credit Union Sunshine Community Fund, a partner in this project.
"The goal is to really saturate some of the vacant space that is there with the new homes," Glover said.
According to Glover, about 71% of people living in this area are renters. The Pathways to Homeownership Initiative is designed to help first-time homebuyers who are at or below 120% of the area. median income. For a family of four, that's about $112,000 a year.
Participants also must complete financial literacy classes, homebuyer counseling and learn about home maintenance.
Along with the Sunshine Community Fund, a host of groups are partnering on this project — Omega CDC, The HomeOwnership Center, Learn to Earn Dayton, Montgomery County Land Bank, the city of Dayton and CityWide Development Corp.
The hope is to help new homeowners create long-term generational wealth that will spark economic growth in this part of Dayton and eventually generating more tax revenue.
"If we are going to economically infuse a community, homeownership is critical," Glover said. "Hopefully home values overall increase, not only for the new homes, but for the current homes that are there. That can ignite opportunity for other revitalization in the retail space. It can then ignite revitalization in ownership of businesses, and so there's this trickle-out ripple effect."
Also for a limited time, the new owners won't have to pay property taxes.
All 30 homes are expected to be in place over the next five years.
People can learn more at countycorp.com under programs.
