House is first in Broward to show results of federal program
By Lisa J. Huriash, Sun Sentinel
January 21, 2010
Plantation has transformed an empty yellow house off West Broward Boulevard from an eyesore to an opportunity.
When it was listed for sale Saturday, the four-bedroom, two-bath house on Southwest First Street apparently became the first Broward County product of a federal program aimed at low- to moderate-income families. The buyer will have a reasonably priced place to live; the city will benefit from a tax-generating property, flipped from a blight on the neighborhood.
"Some family is going to get a beautiful home," said Patricia Stephenson, executive director of the Broward Alliance for Neighborhood Development, the nonprofit group that Plantation hired to buy, rehabilitate and sell homes like this.
The federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program has $6 billion to pump into communities to help them stem declining housing values and turn around foreclosed properties. Out of that, Florida is getting $541 million, of which $104 million is available to Broward and Palm Beach counties.
Last year, Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties collectively had the nation's 10th-highest foreclosure rate among big metro areas. More than 100,000 homeowners in Broward and Palm Beach counties faced foreclosure last year, up 42 percent from 2008, according to Realty Trac Inc.
To be eligible for the program, buyers can earn no more than 120 percent of each county's median income. For a family of four, that would be $91,800 in Broward and $90,480 in Palm Beach County. But some properties are reserved for families earning half the median income, as little as $38,250 in Broward and $37,700 in Palm Beach County.
Federal officials award communities grants based on a mix of foreclosure, unemployment and population rates.
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