Silver Sage may be a step toward 'real' affordable housing

Ever since the Carson Valley real estate market took off, it would seem that the dreams of young families finding attainable housing floated away with it.

In the last few years, attempts at affordable-housing projects have been made, but usually with a price tag running more than $250,000 attached to them.

It's become apparent that the majority of the young families employed along the Highway 395 corridor through Minden and Gardnerville are quite unlikely to own property anywhere in the Valley.

Thus, the dichotomy of the towns' work force being unable to settle nearby and the towns' settlers working elsewhere has become increasingly common.

But a Minden Realtor's plan to privatize a downtown apartment complex has breathed fresh air into the market.

Patty Clark is attempting to convert the Silver Sage Apartments into individually owned condominiums.

The complex is at the end of High School Street in Gardnerville in between Heritage Park and Carson Valley Middle School.

It's her hope, she says, that payments for the monthly mortgage will run about the same as an average rent payment.

In doing so, the project would open up centrally located housing and inject some permanent residents to the downtown business district while doing so at a price that a young family working in the area would be able to manage.

The proposal was unanimously approved by the Gardnerville Town Board, but still has several more hoops to jump through.

Nevertheless, it is a step toward achieving what board and committees have been wrestling with for some time: keeping Carson Valley's sons and daughters here.

- From The Record-Courier