$104 Million Available to Help Sell South Florida Foreclosures

Today’s economic headlines make $104 million sound like chump change, but if you are one of thousands of people living in South Florida who would like to buy a foreclosed property but can’t quite get over the down payment hump, federal assistance is available if you qualify and move fast.

The Neighborhood Stabilization Plan is a federal rescue program designed to help cities and states that have been hit hard by the recent wave of foreclosures to flip foreclosed homes and become landlords, or parcel out grants to first-time homeowners. To qualify for grant money, you can’t make more that 125% of the median income in the city or county where you plan to buy. Some properties are targeted for very low income buyers, and in those specific cases the income requirements are even more stringent.

The federal aid has to be distributed within the next 18 months, and the entire program has to be wrapped up and finished within four years. While some cities (such as Pembroke Pines) have already stopped taking applications, others (such as Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, and Pompano Beach) are still defining the parameters of their programs and have not yet started. Boynton Beach is currently accepting applications, and has been deluged with hopeful buyers.

“Out of 100 calls, you might get 10 people who are really qualified,” said Mindy Wooster, Marketing Director of RTG Construction, the firm that is fielding the application calls for the city.

Still, if you don’t ask, you definitely don’t get.

This Broward County FL 4 bedroom 2 bath bank-owned ranch is one of hundreds of foreclosures currently on the market. This one is listed at $59,900.

Florida residents interested in applying for the Neighborhood Stabilization Grants can find where to apply (by city and location) at a special website set up for that purpose. Right now there are many more applicants than there are grants, but the even that limited grant money doesn’t begin to touch the number of Florida foreclosures that have taken place over the past several years. Broward Country alone had 47,387 homes in foreclosure at the end of 2008, and that was 128%  more than the 20,805 that went into foreclosure there in 2007.

The Neighborhood Stabilization program hopes to at least put a dent in that damage, one foreclosed house at a time. It’s a big task. According to a report released by Elizabeth Warren of the Congressional Oversight Panel last month, by the end of 2009 as many as one in seven homes in the U.S. could be in foreclosure.

The federal, state, and local governments are definitely playing catch-up when it comes to foreclosures, but at least they are all starting to play. Some analysts believe that the stock market may have already hit bottom in the U.S. and that the housing market will not be far behind.

That means that investors looking to buy real estate in the U.S. might want to start looking a little bit more seriously right about now. Getting in at the right moment is crucial.

This might be that moment.