Marietta Celebrates Affordable Housing, Unveils New Home

by the City of Marietta

The city of Marietta and representatives from Traton Homes and Cobb County's Community Development Block Grant program hosted an open house of a new home located at 523 Lemon St. on Feb. 5, one of several new homes in Marietta being sold to low- to moderate-income first time homebuyers.

Through Marietta's HOME program consortium/partnership with Cobb County, new affordable homes are built on vacant lots for low- to moderate-income working families to purchase as a first home opportunity, Marietta's community development block grants manager Mitch Bland said. "While helping these families, we are also helping the city improve these older neighborhoods by having new owner-occupied, single-family homes."

"Cobb County's CDBG program office, which is the administrative agent of our consortium, deserves the credit for developing these new homes and contracted with Chris Posten of Traton Homes to build out these vacant lots acquired through the city's HOME-funded MINT program," Bland said. "I think the Cobb County CDBG program office is doing a great job getting these lots built out with quality homes."

"Traton did a great job," city manager Bill Bruton said. "This is a beautiful home."

"We are proud of what Marietta is doing with one of their initiatives, which is neighborhood rehabilitation," Ward 5 City Councilman Anthony Coleman said. "This is helping Marietta's goals to continue, and it couldn't be done without the support of Mayor Steve Tumlin and City Council."

We have three homes built, and there are four other lots. There are two more on Lemon Street, one on East Fort and one on Griggs Street, Bland said. "The home is even pre-wired for security," he said. "Traton has built some very solid and beautiful homes."

Income limits for the new homes for low-income families are $37,150 for individuals and $42,450 for couples, or 80 percent of the median income, Bland said. "All three homes are under contract," he said. "They range in price from $80,000 to the low $100,000s."

The Marietta Initiative for Neighborhood Transformation (MINT) is an ongoing process of the city of Marietta to replace vacant lots and vacant dilapidated homes with new houses for sale as first-time homeownership opportunities for lower middle-income working families.

The home was built using HOME funds Marietta received from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.