We last checked in on the Northstar Point Breeze homes at 20th & Dickinson almost a year ago, when they had just been framed out. As you can probably guess, these affordable homes have been finished in the time that’s passed, and have been on the market since April. All have been under contract for several months though, at prices ranging from $172.5K to $179K. The corner property settled two days ago and the other two homes are scheduled to close by the end of the month.

December 2011

Last February

The other day

As you can see, these homes look better than a lot of market rate homes we see around the neighborhood, thanks to the efforts of architects JKR Partners. And while we are not at all satisfied on many levels with the way that the latest wave of affordable housing has been implemented in Point Breeze, we can see the benefit of this development, especially considering how far south it’s located in the neighborhood. But not everyone appreciates these new homes, it seems.

Graffiti, from a few days ago

North side

A reader sent in the photos above a few days ago. While it’s possible that this graffiti was simply a random act of vandalism, we’re guessing that it was instead a repudiation of three new construction homes in this part of the neighborhood. We’d imagine that if the person who vandalized the homes would have been aware that they were, in fact, affordable units, they may have chosen a different target, but we’re just speculating here.

Fortunately for the new (and soon to be new) homeowners, it seems that the builders were able to clear off the graffiti rather quickly; though it seems that a couple of windows had yet to be replaced at the time we snapped the photos. Hopefully, this problem won’t recur once the homes are occupied, and the new neighbors will be welcoming into the area with open arms.