Long Beach offers low-interest home loans

Concerned about housing affordability, the authorities in Long Beach devised a strategy to provide a solution to this issue. Through this strategy, they hope to increase the supply of housing and open up opportunities for low-income individuals to find a home to rent.

Under this initiative, in addition to considering the well-being of residents, both homeowners and tenants, the city of Long Beach aims to achieve the goal of building around 26,000 homes over the next four years.

To achieve the goal of this strategy, the city will provide funds to homeowners who have a portion of their property unoccupied, allowing them to use these funds to construct a new home within the unused space of their current property.

Therefore, unfortunately, not all homeowners in Long Beach will be able to benefit from this home loan. This funding program for the construction of affordable housing is designed for a specific population that has available land and wishes to build an additional home in that space.

Although the strategy includes offering loans with very low interest rates for the construction of new homes, it has its conditions. The homeowner who meets the requirements and wishes to enter the program will not be able to dispose of the property during the first five years, as it must be rented out and available only to low-income residents.

Another condition imposed by the loan for housing construction, besides accepting that the first five years the home must be rented, is that the homeowner who receives the loan must live on the same property where the construction will take place and cannot have more than four properties on their lot.

Upon hearing the new strategy from the city of Long Beach, market experts consider that the money granted, about $250,000, is not enough to meet the type of house required by the authorities and to include all the extra expenses involved in building a property, such as planning and construction permits.

The main idea of the program is to provide the opportunity for low-income individuals to have affordable housing, which is why the authorities granting the construction loans require the benefiting homeowners to make the new property exclusively available to them.

Therefore, once the property is built, the loan program will provide an additional financial incentive to homeowners who rent the new home to participants in the voucher program, which covers part of the rent for low-income individuals.

According to the program’s parameters, homeowners who wish to rent their new home to low-income individuals receiving vouchers will not incur interest on the loan granted, and the contract must last at least five years. However, if the property is rented to a low-income person who does not receive vouchers, the lease must be for a minimum of seven years.

If the homeowner does not comply with the program’s purpose, that is, rents the new home to someone who is not low-income, they will be fined. And if, once the initial agreed period of five or seven years is completed, the homeowner decides to rent the home to someone who is not low-income, there will be an increase in the interest rates of the loan granted.

Finally, the program also requires that the owner of the new home cannot rent or sign lease agreements with family members or people who work for them, even if they qualify as low-income individuals.

Available Foreclosures:

Long Beach: 120 houses available.

By Elías DaSilva | 25 de octubre de 2024.