Program Offers Aid to Buyers of Vacants, Foreclosures

Patch has a story about an initiative launched last month called Neighborhood Stabilization Program 2 that grants up to $80,000 in forgivable loans to first-time buyers of foreclosed or vacant homes in neighborhoods with high foreclosure rates. Here’s a bit on how it works: “if a program participant buys a house for $200,000 and gets the maximum $50,000 NSP2 principal equity loan and $30,000 for repairs, the loan will actually reduce the principal by 25 percent, resulting in lower mortgage and monthly interest rate payments.” Patch notes that Clinton Hill and Bed-Stuy are among the neighborhoods where buyers are eligible for the program (Pratt Area Community Council is one of the local nonprofits partnering with HUD and HPD on the program), while the HPD notice that went out announcing the loans also said that buyers in Bushwick, Crown Heights and East New York could apply for the loans. According to the story, “189 vacant houses will be resold in the first stages of the NSP2 program” in Clinton Hill, and it’s surprising to hear there are so many vacant houses in the neighborhood.
Loan Program Looks to Place Brooklyn Families In Vacant Homes [Patch]
Photo by mercurialn