Chamisa Verde
Seven deed-restricted homes - some with 3D-printed concrete walls, some with insulated concrete form walls - in a county where a household needs 260% of area median income to afford a median house. The Academy's housing initiative, and the first instance of a method built to be handed to other people.
Four homes at 1,000 sq ft, three at 900 sq ft. Walls are 3D-printed concrete on some homes and insulated concrete form on others.
The problem this is built against
Taos County has a median household income of $58,908 and a typical home value of $439,074. That is a price-to-income ratio of about 7.5, against a national norm nearer 4.6.
Put in terms of who can actually buy: a household needs 260% of area median income to afford a median single-family home here, and 170% even for an attached unit. Rent is no easier - barely half of Taos County renters pay what counts as an affordable rent.
The causes are specific and local. Materials come in from Albuquerque, Santa Fe or Denver. Skilled trades are scarce, partly because the tradespeople cannot afford to live here either. The terrain is steep, the lots are dispersed, and utility extension is expensive. Every square foot built in Taos costs more than it does where materials are local and labor is abundant.
The approach
Three things at once
Lowering the build cost on its own does not produce affordable housing. It produces one cheap house and one lucky buyer. Chamisa Verde closes the gap three ways.
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Build it for less, here
Some of these homes have 3D-printed concrete walls; the others have insulated concrete form (ICF) walls - two ways of putting up a wall of concrete, chosen per building. Both are priced excluding site work.
Construction for and by a local market, where skilled crews learn the method and become a boost to the local economy.
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Lock the affordability so it survives the sale
Every home carries a deed restriction with a resale formula, buyer qualification, enforcement timelines, co-ownership eligibility, and automatic notification when a home is put up for sale. The title agent acknowledges it at closing and the buyer signs an orientation certificate.
The restriction does not expire. It runs with the land in perpetuity, so the home stays reachable for every household that owns it, not only the first. Most affordable housing is affordable once; this is the clause that makes the difference.
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Train the people who build the next one
The Academy teaches every system in these houses, including a professional operator course for the printer itself. A method that only Pangea can execute does not scale. A method a local crew can run does.
Chamisa Verde is one of two housing programmes the Academy runs. The housing work in full, including the workforce housing at the Pangea Community.
What a household actually pays
Sale prices run from about $172,000 for a two-bedroom home of 900 square feet to about $190,000 for a three-bedroom home of 1,000 square feet, as reported by the Town of Taos in July 2025. Homes are sold at a restricted price rather than at an open-market price, and final sale prices are set by the Town of Taos.
The homes are for households at or below 120% of area median income, with Taos County residency priority. Buyers are qualified against that standard before purchase, not after.
Support runs alongside the price: a 5% soft second, an eight-hour HUD-certified homebuyer class, and one-on-one counseling. The class is not a formality - a deed restriction changes what ownership means, and nobody should sign one without having had it explained to them first.
For scale: a household needs roughly 260% of area median income to afford the average single-family home in Taos (Town Council presentation, October 2025). That figure describes the market these homes sit in, not the households they serve.
What the Academy does here
The Academy's role is the administration, not the construction: outreach, intake, a randomized and auditable lottery, and the role of deed-restriction Administrator, under a Memorandum of Understanding with the Town of Taos. Keeping the administrator independent of the build is the point - it is what makes the lottery worth trusting.
Applicants are referred to participating lenders and are free to use any lender they choose. The Academy does not steer anyone to a particular bank.
Affordable to keep, not only to buy
A price at closing is half the question. These are passive house buildings and they are all-electric. The envelope does the work a furnace and an air conditioner would otherwise do, so the running cost is low by construction rather than by how carefully somebody lives in it.
For a household near the income limit, a small energy bill is real money every month for the life of the building. That is the difference between a home somebody can buy and a home somebody can keep - and it is the part of affordability that most programs never reach.
Where it stands
Construction is in progress. The deed restriction and its appendices are finalized, including the title agent acknowledgment and the buyer orientation certificate. The homebuyer qualification framework is complete. Permitting runs through the New Mexico Construction Industries Division.
If you are a prospective buyer, start with homebuyer education - the deed restriction has real obligations and it is worth understanding them before you apply.
Students
Build it with us
A method only Pangea can execute does not scale. The fastest way to learn one is to stand in it while it is being built, so students work on these houses alongside the crew.
What you would actually be doing depends on what the site is doing that week - wall printing and ICF placement, roof framing on vigas, the airtightness and insulation work a passive house lives or dies on, or finishing. You work with the crew rather than watching them, and you leave having done the thing rather than having seen it.
No experience needed, and no course has to be finished first - though the online curriculum is free and the week makes far more sense if you have read the relevant course before you arrive. There is a waiver to sign and real site conditions: this is a construction site at 7,000 feet, and it is cold, dusty and physical.
Tell us below and we will write back with what is coming up, what it costs, and what to bring. Choose “Chamisa Verde - affordable housing, Taos” so it reaches the right person. If the cost is what is stopping you, say so in the last box - the scholarship fund covers field sessions.
Support the work
Pangea Academy is a 501(c)(3). Donations are tax-deductible and fund the scholarship program and the housing work.