700 Foreclosed Houses for Sale to Prince George Families

An affordable housing program called Down Payment on Your Dream has been launched by Prince George’s County in Maryland to help lower-income families and first-time home buyers finally realize their dream of owning a home.

While helping families, the program will also help the county manage neighborhoods with high numbers of repo houses for sale.

A couple who has moved into the second foreclosed house bought under the program paid only $260,000 for the house which was sold in December 2008 at $349,000, according to state real estate records. The couple received over $18,000 from the county to help them with their down payment.

Rosalyn Clemens, head of the Prince George’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program, said that the county NSP hopes to move families into seven foreclosed houses by the end of the week and plans to settle families into 700 foreclosed houses during the entire duration of the program. Prince George’s has received $10.8 million for its housing program from the federal NSP.

Only first-time homebuyers who are earning less than 120 percent of the median family income in Prince George’s are qualified under the program. A small family earning an annual income of $98,000 is qualified while bigger families have higher limits.

In 33 zip codes where there are a lot of foreclosures, such as Upper Marlboro, homebuyers can be given 7 percent of the sales price for down payment, up to a maximum of $20,000. In other zip codes, buyers can obtain 3.5 percent of the sales price up to a maximum of $15,000.

Homebuyers who leave the house within 4 years are required to repay the full amount of the NSP grant without interest. Homeowners who stay in their homes for 10 years will become free of any NSP payment obligation.

Out of the initial 8 foreclosed houses acquired under the program, 3 were located in Upper Marlboro, the town with the biggest number of distressed foreclosed properties in July.

Currently, there are 590 foreclosed home auctions in Upper Marlboro and almost 5,000 foreclosed homes in Prince George’s.

While Upper Marlboro has a lot of foreclosures, it was not included in the application for second-round NSP funding submitted by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. Officials explained that the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development imposed additional requirements for areas to be able to get a share from the second round of NSP fund distribution.

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