Low-income first time home buyers get assistance from County

Low-income residents planning to buy their first homes may be eligible for down-payment assistance administered by the Placer County Redevelopment Agency.

The First Time Homebuyer Assistance Program is open to low-income residents buying homes in unincorporated areas of Placer County.

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‘We know how hard it is for first-time buyers to purchase homes. That’s why it’s so important to have a program like this available,’ Board of Supervisors Chairman Jim Holmes said. ‘The Redevelopment Agency is very pleased to be able to help low-income residents realize the dream of owning their own homes.’

Low-income households are those who earn no more than 80 percent of the area’s medium income. For a four-person household, 80 percent of median currently is $56,800.

To qualify for down-payment assistance through the program, a potential home buyer also must:

• Be a first-time buyerBe preapproved for a first mortgage loan
• Have at least 3 percent of the total purchase price available for the down payment, funds that cannot be in the form of a loan; and
• • Identify an eligible property for sale in an unincorporated area of Placer County.

Through the program, the county provides a 30-year, second-mortgage loan that is not due and payable until a home is sold or transferred.

The maximum loan available through the program is $36,650.

Funding is limited, so not all eligible applicants will necessarily receive loans.

Most of the funding is from the California Department of Housing and Community Development’s CalHome Program. The program provides funding to local public agencies and nonprofit corporations for housing programs that benefit residents with low or very low incomes.

More information also is available by calling Joyce A. Pope at 530-745-3168 or Cathy Donovan at 530-745-3170.

The first-time homebuyer program is one of several affordable housing initiatives the Redevelopment Agency has underway.

The agency worked with Morrison Homes to help make 15 affordable homes available to low-income households at Lariat Ranch, a North Auburn residential development formerly known as Atwood III. Fourteen of the homes have been purchased by qualified low-income households and the 15th is under contract.

The Redevelopment Agency also made a loan to Foothills Habitat for Humanity of Placer County recently that covered the cost of street improvements and water and sewer lines for a house the organization built in an unincorporated area near Rocklin.

‘We’re deeply appreciative,’ said Executive Director Tertia Hawkins of Foothills Habitat for Humanity. The house was dedicated Saturday, July 26.