PERRY COUNTY, In. (WEHT) — With a little luck you can be a lottery winner, and Perry County worked to make sure everyone who wanted to be a winner received their prize.
The Perry County Redevelopment Commission developed a lottery in which residents or anyone looking to build a house could purchase a land lot in a subdivision for $15,000 dollars.
Tony Thomas, a member of the redevelopment commission says compared to what land may usually go for in the area, the cost was around $25,000 less than the average.
This lottery was created to not only give everyone an equal chance at buying new land to build homes but also creating new homes with a goal of bringing more people into the community which also leads to filling job vacancy’s in the area.
“They’re struggling for workers. what can we do to bring someone that’s commuting 60, 70 miles a day,” Thomas explained. “We can give them a place to build a home.”
There were 27 land lots available which are located at the junction of highway 37 and highway 237.
Phil Fortwendel of Fortwendel & Co. Construction say he and his company walked through the land to figure out which plots would be best for them to buy.
“As far as the lottery system, I thought it was a good opportunity for it to be fair for everyone, you know, to show up and be the first ones to, you know, grab the lot that they wanted,” said Fortwendel.
While the commission says this is the first time to the county has ever done something like this they want to make sure all these lots become homes.
“Trying to find an area and make it affordable,” Thomas stated. “If you look at the cost to build a home today, yes, it is dropping but of course, materials drop and interest is going up,” he added. “So doing these lots at $15,000 with all the work offering is just unheard of.”
For Fortwendel, he hopes this will be the start of something special for the county and the community as a whole.
“Just help out the local economy, bring people in from out of town and new housing opportunities, ” said Fortwendel.
