On Wednesday, Nov. 12, we had the honour of welcoming Minnesota Housing Commissioner Jennifer Ho to St. Cloud as we officially broke ground on our new 34-unit twin home development in south St. Cloud. The visit marked an important moment not only for Dreamliner Estates but for the future of accessible homeownership in the region.
Dreamliner Estates, led by Ryan Daniel, Emmanuel Oppong and Eunice Adjei, is embarking on a phased project that will deliver 34 single-family twin homes designed to support low- and moderate-income households. The first phase—four units—will be ready for residents by next summer.
Commissioner Ho, who has served in her role since 2019, shared insights into the state’s commitment to expanding housing opportunities. She described Minnesota Housing as the state’s “housing bank,” providing tools such as bonds, tax credits and grants to make homeownership more attainable. In 2024 alone, the agency distributed $1.96 billion in resources, supporting 73,650 households.
“Really, what we’re trying to do is help teams like (Dreamliner Estates) put homes like this in the ground, and be available for purchase,” Ho told St. Cloud LIVE.
A key component of this project is Minnesota Housing’s gap financing, which helps bridge the affordability divide for prospective buyers. As explained during the event, the support comes in two forms: a value gap, which reduces the cost of constructing the home, and an affordability gap, which directly assists buyers.
Dreamliner Estates received $3.4 million from Minnesota Housing to support 16 of the 34 twin homes planned within the Southern Ridge Planned Unit Development.
Each unit will feature four bedrooms, with pricing projected at $390,000 in 2026. Although prices reflect current market conditions, the need remains strong. As noted in the 2024 St. Cloud Comprehensive Housing Needs Study, the average twin home cost $129,900 in December 2023. Commissioner Ho emphasised that rising construction costs stem from multiple pressures, including tariffs, interest rates and labour shortages.
“There’s just a whole bunch of things that are hitting that just make the cost to build higher than it was, and if the cost to build is higher, then the cost to buy is higher,” she said.
Ho also highlighted the importance of this development, noting how rare it has been for Minnesota Housing to visit St. Cloud for single-family projects due to the limited number built in recent years.
For our team, the goal of Dreamliner Estates is clear: contribute meaningfully to St. Cloud’s housing needs. With the city projecting a need for 17,000 new housing units by 2040, this project is one of many steps toward addressing that gap.
Ho also reflected on the broader statewide housing shortage, tracing its roots back to the 2007 Subprime Mortgage Crisis. New construction slowed dramatically, yet household growth continued—creating long-term supply and demand imbalances.
“When the housing crash hit, production slowed way down, but our household growth continued,” Ho explained. “So we end up with a supply-demand problem where we just don’t have enough homes for the number of households that we have. Then we have basic economic pressures when supply is low, demand is high, prices go up.
Even the inflation wave that we just went through was largely driven by housing inflation, the cost of rent, the cost of buying a home, and so being able to realize the opportunity for families eventually to be able to buy a home here is still the American dream,” she added.
At Dreamliner Estates, we are proud to help strengthen that dream in St. Cloud. This groundbreaking represents more than the start of a construction project—it marks progress toward a future where more families can access stable, high-quality homes in our community.