Buying Foreclosed Houses with Aid in Palm Beach, Florida

Buying foreclosed houses will become easier this week for qualified residents of West Palm Beach, Florida following the city’s implementation of a financial assistance scheme that will provide 50-percent financing to prospective buyers of houses in the Coleman Park community.

According to West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel, the homeownership program was designed to help bring more moderate- or higher-income families into Coleman Park and help make the community safer and more stable.

Mayor Frankel explained that while the area was known for crime in the past, incidents of crime have been declining over the past years. She also said that Coleman Park is just 5 minutes to and from downtown and to the waterfront.

Andrew Weitch, home loan manager for Wells Fargo in West Palm Beach, said that prospective buyers can look at CityPlace in the south, which has been turned into a vibrant, stable and very safe neighborhood.

The houses to be sold include newly-built three-bedroom homes priced at $150,000, with buyers paying $75,000 and the city paying the other half. For those buying foreclosed houses rehabilitated by the city, they will pay only $44,500, with the city paying the rest to cover the selling price of $89,000.

The city expects police officers, city employees and other workers to take advantage of the offer. Applicants need to pass financial and criminal background checks, although there will be cases where credit levels lower than 600 may be considered.

Only lower-income buyers will be eligible under the program, excluding individuals earning more than $63,360 and married couples earning more than $72,360. A family of 5 must be earning only $97,680 or lower. Applicants must also commit to live in the properties, use them as their principal residence and not use them for investment purposes.

According to Mayor Frankel, the home buying program is one great deal because it runs in conjunction with other housing stimulus programs like the federal tax credit program and other closing-cost assistance programs.

In an earlier report about the program, city commissioners questioned the provision in the program under which buyers can resell the properties after three years and get back the money they invested plus the profit from the sale.

The commissioners said that they are not willing to use federal stimulus money for buying foreclosed houses to help supposedly needy buyers, but who are really shrewd people taking advantage of government programs for their investment purposes.

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