Land Contracts
Summary
Poverty Solutions and its partners have explored supportive land contracts as a path to homeownership and the policies needed to reduce abuse of predatory land contracts.
In the wake of the Great Recession, land contracts have reemerged in Detroit and across the country as a prominent alternative pathway to homeownership for households with limited access to capital and lending.
Much of the research on land contracts finds them to be exploitative. However, mission-driven organizations in Southeast Michigan have used supportive land contracts to enable homeownership for credit-constrained households.
Poverty Solutions and Enterprise Community Partners received a $100,000 innovation grant in 2022 for their research on supportive land contracts in Detroit from the Valuing Homes in Black Communities challenge from Brookings and Ashoka. Their findings informed legislation on regulating the use of land contracts that was considered in Michigan and Maryland.
