Posted on 07/01/2008 7:14:45 AM PDT by rabscuttle385
Fairfax County approved a landmark housing program yesterday to buy foreclosed properties for middle-income families, becoming one of the first communities in the country to tackle the nation's growing mortgage crisis while also addressing the region's increasing demand for affordable housing.
County leaders said the program, through which Fairfax will purchase some properties outright and help families buy others through subsidized loans, takes advantage of a unique moment when thousands of homes are entering foreclosure and available for purchase at below-market prices. The program will expand the county's stock of affordable housing and help stabilize areas where clusters of abandoned, unkempt properties in foreclosure threaten the value and vitality of surrounding neighborhoods, county officials said.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Run!!!
Now this could be a one hell of an investment...in several years if the county holds these houses and then sells them.
But...in the meantime, where is the dough-re-mi coming from to buy these distressed properties?
.....in the meantime, where is the dough-re-mi coming from to buy these distressed properties.......
Perhaps HUD urban renewal grant?
Wow!
The County must be “earning” a LOT of money to be able to afford such an undertaking.
Wow!
The County must be “earning” a LOT of money to be able to afford such an undertaking.
That’s a rhetorical question, right? Like this one.
This is the county that takes in so many tax dollars that they can afford the police to set up road blocks to check people’s car registrations for expiration. “Papers please!”
Anything that takes money away from that has to be a good thing.
[flounder]oh boy this is gonna be good...[/flounder]
Property and sales taxes extorted from U.S. citizens and legally-resident aliens who have the misfortune to reside in The People's Republic of Fairfax, a county so eaten up with leftist politicians and government bureaucrats making $100k+ per year that a person there would think he has been teleported to Marxist-Land.
I guess that means that investors that could buy some of these houses at a bargain won’t have the opportunity. Isn’t that what usually happens in a community?
Don't confused Fairfax County with Arlington (Virginia) or Montgomery (Maryland). Fairfax is bad, but it's not that bad...yet.
signed, a fairfax co. resident : )
It would be cheaper than public housing ‘projects’
My aunt and Uncle lived on a street where they put ‘the projects’.
the neighborhood looked like a militarized zone in less than 10 years. the housing building were covered with filth, human waste, and graffiti.
The copper pipes were riped out and sold for scrap.
The millions spent could have bought EVERY PERSON that ever lived there a $100,000 house (this is an area of the country where you can easily buy a nice 4 bedroom ranch for less than that still)
Translated - the local government is taking the hard earned wealth from those families who did not overextend and is using it to ensure that the lending institutions that used bad judgement in lending money to poor risks will not suffer the consequences of their actions. Basically removing the consequences of poor judgement from those who exercised the poor judgement and forcing those consequences on those who exercised good judgement.
oh- and the nice wholesome ‘old school’ polish community that had thrived there for decades had all moved away and the whole street has 50% empty buildings used for crack houses, and the remainder sold for about 10% of their original value.
Some of them never recovered from the loss in real estate value- my uncle died unable to stop crying in a metal hospital.
Great GOVERNEMT ‘PROJECT’ work
Which means the median income of area residents = $75,600/0.8 = $94,500!!!
This money is made by local, state, and federal govt. teat-suckers who, in order to wink while on the job, must open one eye!
Yup, too many government employees out in Fairfax.
Remember the County Board of Supervisors KNOWS better than we do what to do with our money.
Wow, what incredible stupidity. Simply stupefying.
Fairfax County is worried about the fair market value of these properties...and the consequences to their real estate tax base. They see this as an “investment” to protect their fleecing of county residents beyond would the market legitimately would allow. The rest of the county should get out the pitchforks and march down to the municipal building.
Exactly right. This is all about propping up that property tax base. Places like Fairfax County have reaped billions in taxes as home prices exploded in this decade. Of course they have spent all that money, so now that home values are coming back to Earth and people who irresponsibly bought homes they could not afford are being foreclosed, these localities’ budgets are hemorrhaging. Fairfax County also has a gigantic school system and I can only imagine how much more it is paying for fuel for all those school buses now.
Could be, Rex. OTOH, housing given to low income residents tend to be trashed pretty quickly and reduces property values.
Housing projects are concentration camps for the socially dysfunctional.
LOL, I thought that was just Accomack County!! Seriously though, I think that this is a state, not local, thing. They periodically set up one of these license/registration check points at the intersection I can see from my back deck. It is always the state boys, not the county sheriff doing it. They had one a few weeks back and there were 4 state police cruisers there for a couple of hours.
I personally think it is a waste of resources as there are far too few state police in this county to begin with. Now if they were doing it to check on the illegals around here, well that would b a different story altogether.
Indeed - our 1st half property tax bill from Fairfax Country arrived two weeks ago. $4040, representing $8080 for the full year.
We did not over-extend ourselves and in fact paid the mortgage off significantly ahead of time.
Nice to know that my tax dollars are going to help those who did not practice prudent finance. Makes we wonder whether I am the stupid one.
Jack
Hmmmm...one of the great ideals of the USA is that of private ownership of property. Once the govt owns these properties, will they EVER be wholly private again?
Also, if they are owned by the govt, doesn’t that take them OFF the tax roles?
Sounds like a tort-lawyers dream...
These renters will not paint or mow or fix anything. So will the county have a fleet of landscapers, painters and plumbers to keep them all up?
Not to mention that the property values in such areas will go drastically lower as soon as it is apparent what kind of neighborhood it is.
Section 8 does not pay $50/month in the DC area.
Yep, good point. Very good point.
I refer to those folks as “million dollar neighbors.”
God forgive me, though.
I can think of many Greek root names of styles of government: Aristocracy, monarchy, oligarchy, meritocracy...
But I can't think of the proper name for "rule by the most stupid in a society" --- asynetocracy? amathocracy? anarmodiocracy?
We need an appropriate name for this increasingly popular phenomenon.
I believe you've identified the essence of the problem; it's not lack of home ownership.
This proposal will ensure that the society cancer lingers for generations, slowly strangling the 98% of normal citizens who are being forced to pay for it!
... but we meant well! ... whine...
Try stupidocracy...or maybe dumbassocracy.
Personally, I think the name "Democrat Party" works fine.
I'm really happy I don't live there any more - where I am now, they don't have the manpower, and if they tried to raise taxes to hire the manpower, it'd be torches ‘n’ pitchforks time.
Accomack can't possibly have the manpower either. I wonder what kind of deal they worked out with State?
No, they don't have the manpower, which is why I just took for granted it was a state thing, because I only know of the state boys doing it.
My bad for making assumptions :)
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