Arizona Homebuilder and Operation Homefront Partner to Give Injured Veterans Housing Discounts
Biltmore Homes is offering to take up to $50,000 off the price of new houses

by Zach Mortice
Associate Editor

Summary: Biltmore Homes of Arizona is the first homebuilder to join with Operation Homefront and offer large discounts to injured veterans and their families in a new subdivision it’s developing. The price of the houses is reduced for these families by $30,000 to $50,000. The softening real estate market has benefited the program, as homebuilders say they are anxious to unload standing housing stock that hasn’t sold.

For the more than 28,500 veterans injured in the Iraq War alone, returning home can be both a relief and a struggle. Added to the day-to-day difficulties of returning to civilian life, injured veterans are often subject to reduced capacity to work and subsequent extra financial stresses. To ease these hardships, Operation Homefront, a charity dedicated to meeting the needs of struggling military families, has began a program that partners them with homebuilders and mortgage lenders to offer deep home discounts for wounded veterans. The first homebuilder to sign up is Biltmore Homes of Scottsdale, Ariz. They have offered to reduce the prices of homes in their WestGlen Villas subdivision in suburban Glendale, Ariz., by $30,000 to $50,000.

Suburban comforts
The suburban Phoenix homebuilder is offering discounts on already-built houses. Seven are available so far. The houses in WestGlen Villas have two to five bedrooms, and the smallest is roughly 1,300 square feet, while the largest homes are 2,300 square feet, with prices ranging from $230,000 to $251,000. The $30,000 to $50,000 discount is determined by the price of the house; the more expensive the house, the larger the discount. No specific level of wartime injury is required for the discount.

“We’re cutting these homes down to the bone in terms of profit margin,” says Dennis Herrig, Biltmore Homes’ Vice President of Sales and Marketing.

The gabled suburban tract homes are one and two stories and come with model names like Catiana, Monterosso, Palermo, and Siena. Their facades are decorated with stucco, concrete tile, and sometimes brick—the roofs are adorned with terra cotta. They were designed by architecture firm Bloodgood Sharp and Buster. The gated subdivision is located near a large swath of new suburban development. A new football and hockey stadium are both nearby, and the Carl T. Hayden VA Medical Center is 10 miles away in Phoenix, making it a convenient location for veterans still undergoing treatment.

Helped by the market?
Meredith Leyva, Operation Homefront’s founder, says it can be especially difficult for injured veterans to get resettled into homeownership because their credit ratings are frequently scarred by the ordeal, as military payments often drop when soldiers are injured and rotated out of active duty. Getting them past this initial 18 to 24 months of bad credit is key. Leyva says it’s likewise important to keep injured veterans together for the camaraderie and mutual support system they can provide each other.

“We know that permanent housing is key to both emotional stability as well as financial stability,” she says.

Established by military spouses in 2001, Operation Homefront has assisted 45,000 military families and wounded soldiers and has given more than $5 million through scholarship programs, moving assistance, food assistance, and more. Leyva says 130,000 families are eligible for the housing program.

In some ways, Operation Homefront has been helped by an unlikely ally: the housing market’s rapidly dropping prices and increased foreclosures. Like other explosively sprawling Sunbelt cities, Phoenix has borne the brunt of these price drops. Forbes magazine called it the fifth worst housing market in the nation, with a median price drop of 2.7 percent. Maricopa County (where Phoenix is located) is the third most foreclosure-saturated county in the nation. These market conditions have kept prices low for struggling veterans and have given builders an extra incentive to move standing inventory. They’ve also given Operation Homefront more bargaining sway to get access to what Leyva calls homes at “fire sale” prices. “It’s a lot easier to twist arms on this now than it would have been a year ago,” she says.

Operation Homefront has been working with builders in Michigan and the Houston Housing Authority to establish more discounted houses for injured veterans, with more deals to come. “Every day we get one or two builders who provide us with commitments,” says Leyva.