Meena Thiruvengadam
Dow Jones Newswires
via FoxBusiness.com
9/1/2010
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- The U.S. Housing and Urban Development department plans to partner with mortgage lenders to offer state and local governments and nonprofits a chance to buy bank-owned properties before they’re offered to private investors.
“Local communities will now get an exclusive option to buy foreclosed properties in targeted neighborhoods so they can turn the homes into affordable housing or, in some cases, tear them down,” HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan said Wednesday.
The effort, dubbed the National First Look Program, aims to lessen the competition between communities and non-profit organizations and private investors.
It will allow participants in HUD’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program to receive immediate notification of properties as they become available. They would then have the opportunity to purchase properties at a discount. Certain buyers may have the option of making purchases using funds from the stabilization program.
Read more at RealEstateRama, HUD Secretary announces national “First Look” program to help communities stabilize neighborhoods hard-hit by foreclosure
