“We played the Zillow game for the first couple of months, I’d say, before kind of just giving up,” Chad said. “We’d look at a house and be like, ‘yeah, that’s not attainable by any stretch of the imagination.'”

That was in 2023. As of November 2024, they are proud homeowners in the Fawn Valley Development.

“Getting into this situation was wonderful,” Mackenzie said. “It’s our own space to own, but it’s also something that feels like we can settle and have a life here.”

The development is made up of 22 units — 16 town homes and six cape-style homes — that are nestled in a forested area off Wesvalley Road. On Thursday, residents and representatives from Homestead Development Corporation gathered for a small celebration marking the official completion of the project. Residents trickled out of their homes, ice cream bowls in hand, and several kids on bikes zoomed around the oval driveway.

Mark and Kristen White moved into their Fawn Valley home in Lake Placid last year. (Provided photo — Ken Aaron)

As the Fawn Valley project wraps up, Homestead is in talks with the Adirondack Park Agency as it works towards aproval of a 23-unit development, Fox Hill on Algonquin Drive.

At Thursday’s celebration, Homestead board member and town councilmember Emily Kilburn Politi observed the smiles all around.

“It’s amazing to say that it’s done,” she said. “We have a whole community of people here who enjoy each other and are chatting. They’ve really made a neighborhood here.”

Fawn Valley was among several housing developments that were proposed for Lake Placid in 2023, following a housing needs assessment study in 2020 by the town of North Elba and village of Lake Placid. Kilburn Politi said there were some hiccups along the way, namely, the state approval process for a homeowners association that took much longer than anticipated. The houses went on the market in May of 2024.

Kilburn Politi said it’s a testament to the project’s success that Homestead receives inquiries from other towns in the region asking about their model. In this case, the nonprofit’s model uses donated land and grants to cover the infrastructure of the homes. That way, the homeowners only have to pay for the cost of the house.

The completed Fawn Valley development by Homestead Development Corp. is pictured Thursday evening. (Provided photo — Ken Aaron)

Eligibility requirements for the developments allow anyone making up to 200% of the Area Median Income to apply. For a four member household, that limit would be $162,400 per year. To support long-term housing affordability, the deeds are restricted with no renting allowed and with resale value limited to the “initial investment plus 25% of the appreciated value as defined by an appraisal at time of sale compared with the appraisal at the time of purchase,” according to Homestead’s website.

Funding for Fawn Valley included a combination of donations, private lenders and grants. There was some funding from the North Elba Local Enhancement and Advancement Fund, which comes from the town’s allotment of county-collected occupancy taxes.

To find out more about the Homestead developments or to apply to be on the waiting list for their housing opportunities, visit homesteadadk.org.

Makenzie and Chad said many of their young friends have the same expectation that they’ll be renting forever if they want to live in Lake Placid, even people who grew up in the area. Makenzie said the market is volatile and unrealistic for people their age.

Kristen and Mark White, who both currently work at the Lake Placid Olympic and Paralympic Training Center, grew up in Vermont and Lake Placid, respectively. They met in Plattsburgh and always wanted to find a way back to Lake Placid.

When the opportunity to move came, housing was a continual struggle. They found their first rental through a friend, and their second through a co-worker. Almost everything is word-of-mouth in the Lake Placid rental market, they said. They found out about Fawn Valley and moved in last July, an opportunity that Kristen said felt “unbelievable.”

“To own a home in general,” Mark added. “But in Lake Placid specifically, (we) never thought it would happen.”