CAVALIER, N.D. — The city of Cavalier is hoping to bring in new residents and support current ones with a recently implemented housing incentive program.
Voted in by the Cavalier City Council on Feb. 6, this program offers new residents assistance with building, buying and bringing in homes, as well as offering help to those who already live in Cavalier.
Casey Krieg, Cavalier’s city administrator and auditor, said the goal of the program is to bring in new homes to the city.
“We are trying to incentivize more housing in Cavalier,” she said. “Cavalier, just like a lot of places, has a housing shortage, so we’re trying to get people either to bring in or to build.”
The housing shortage means there’s a small number of houses available for prospective homeowners to choose from.
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“Homes don't last long on the market,” she said. “They sell within just a couple of weeks, so we just don't have housing for all the people that would like to live here.”
Some of the incentives include: a $15,000 grant for residents who purchase or build a newly constructed single family home or multi family home within city limits with a minimum taxable value of $50,000; a $10,000 grant for residents relocating a single family home into city limits with a minimum taxable value of $50,000, which Krieg has noted a few people in the past years doing; a $200 credit on a resident’s travel and municipal utility bill for painting their home within city limits, limited to once per property owner.
The funds for these grants and incentives come from Cavalier’s growth fund, which is generated through sales tax dollars, according to Krieg.
Housing incentives are new to the city of Cavalier, which already has multiple business incentives available. The housing incentive program is inspired by similar programs of nearby communities.
“We knew that we have a housing shortage and so kind of looked around at what some other area towns are doing for incentives and we kind of took some of their ideas,” she said. “And then also added some of our own and kind of revamped it so that it could be what would work well for the city of Cavalier.”
Though these incentives are tempting, Krieg does not have a set timeline of how many homes they’ll bring to the area.
“I know that, especially with the cost of materials and stuff, you know, it has deterred some people, but we’re hoping that maybe these grants will help to offset some of those additional costs that we’re all kind of seeing that have increased,” she said.
More information about the housing incentive program can be found at https://cavaliernd.gov/development/housing/ .
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