A housing project in western Maryland is aiming to make ownership easier to afford by tackling both the sale price of homes and the energy costs that come after move-in.
A $963,600 state grant was awarded to the Garrett County Maryland Affordable Housing Land Trust on July 30, which will focus on integrating high-efficiency, sustainable heat pumps into all of the 73 planned homes.
These heat pumps will provide sustainable and reliable space heating, cooling, and hot water for the incoming families.
What happened?
The Garrett County government said the money will fund all-electric ground source heat pump systems in every home planned for the Hemlock Grove Housing Project in Grantsville, Maryland.
The fund will split to $12,000 for each home, with the goal of removing the usual added upfront expense of installing geothermal. The land trust said it will put in another $190,530 so buyers are not left paying the remaining gap between natural gas heat and the cleaner system.
Hemlock Grove is slated to have 27 single-family homes starting at $249,000 and 46 townhomes starting at $189,000, according to the announcement. Those figures are below the area's median home prices, which fall between $328,000 and $429,000.
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Sales for the first 16 homes are expected to begin in August 2026, and the full project is scheduled to be completed in fall 2028.
"We are pleased to support the installation of geothermal systems at the Hemlock Grove development, which will bring meaningful savings to Maryland homeowners and ratepayers by lowering energy costs and reducing demand on the grid," Maryland Energy Administration Director Kelly Speakes-Backman said.
Why does it matter?
Because underground temperatures stay more consistent than winter air, ground source heat pumps can heat and cool homes more efficiently than systems that depend on outdoor conditions or fossil fuels.
In Garrett County, where winters are often severe, that advantage could be especially important.
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Projections for the project indicate that each household could save about $1,039 a year on utility costs, which comes to roughly $10,390 over 10 years.
Each home is also expected to avoid around 3.88 tons of carbon pollution annually, adding up to nearly 2,833 tons over the course of a decade. Over that same 10-year span, the development is projected to replace more than 391,000 therms of fossil fuel use.
The geothermal approach could reduce winter stress on the grid by as much as 73% and cut peak summer electricity demand by 23%, the Garrett County announcement said.
What's being done?
Even before the geothermal funding came through, the project had already lined up $4 million for basic infrastructure, such as roads, water, and sewer.
Project organizers are also coordinating with local lenders, nonprofits, and buyer assistance programs to improve access to homeownership for working families. That includes possible down-payment grant support through Garrett County Community Action.
If it works as intended, the project may provide a template for other rural areas facing the same pair of problems: Too little affordable housing and high year-round costs to keep homes livable and comfortable.
"Hemlock Grove is proof that we do not have to choose between affordability and environmental excellence," a representative from the Garrett County Maryland Affordable Housing Land Trust said. "Thanks to the MD GAP grant, local working families will gain equity in high-performance, comfortable homes with permanently suppressed monthly energy costs."
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