By: Deborah Johnson Wood
Lighthouse Communities could purchase as many as 150 HUD-foreclosed homes in Grand Rapids over the next two years, rehab them and put them back on the market to preserve the integrity of neighborhoods and property values. Organization leaders expect that action to put some $7.5 million dollars into the local economy and create an untold number of home remodeling and contract construction jobs.
Lighthouse Communities, a nonprofit affordable housing agency, will buy the HUD homes from the City of Grand Rapids at $1 each, invest about $50,000 in per-home renovations and re-sell them to homebuyers at or near market value.
“To undersell the market is to take equity away from neighbors and neighborhoods,” says Jeremy DeRoo, Lighthouse spokesperson. “I think this will be a very big boost to smaller contractors and subcontractors located in Grand Rapids because we’re finding that these projects tend to go to those contractors.”
Connie Bohatch, community development director for the City of Grand Rapids, says that over the next three years HUD believes some 400 homes within the city limits could be available for the city to purchase for $1 each.
“It’s somewhat of a moving target,” she says. “HUD puts them on the market for 180 days at a discounted value. If they don’t sell, they go in the $1 per home program and the city has access to them. HUD has changed the contractor they use for this program, and it’s not clear to us right now what homes are available to us.”
DeRoo adds that any homes that do not sell will be leased to families who are not yet ready to purchase, reducing the number of homes on the market and further preserving property values.
Source: Jeremy DeRoo, Lighthouse Communities; Connie Bohatch, City of Grand Rapids
Deborah Johnson Wood is the development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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