Miami Foreclosed Homes Bought by Flippers, Needy Residents
October 7th, 2009 by 
jparker
Miami foreclosed homes can now be acquired by the neediest families of the city in the midst of the return of groups of flippers to South Florida looking for cheap distressed properties.
With financial assistance from the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, the city will help low-income households compete with flippers in the purchase of cheap foreclosures to buy and fix.
Low-income families earning 120 percent or less of Miami’s median income are qualified to apply for assistance. If single, the maximum income is $56,640 and if supporting an 8-member family, the maximum income is $106,800.
Qualified families can receive up to $70,000 to help them buy a foreclosed house priced not higher than $236,000. The targeted properties must be located in neighborhoods most clobbered by the crisis and the homes must have been foreclosed and vacant.
Additionally, the total acquisition cost must include the purchase cost and repair costs and the properties must be purchased at a discount.
Applicants must also have stable jobs so they can afford the monthly loan payments and must first get pre-approval for a home loan. They should not be current owners of homes.
Housing analysts say that the $70,000 assistance is a substantial help to most families. They said that the amount is already enough to make a 50-percent down payment on many Miami foreclosed homes for sale.
The South Florida Board of Realtists has a similar program for African American families in partnership with the Miami-Dade County Office of Community and Economic Development.
Danny Felton, president of the Realtists, said that his organization is looking at bank-repossessed properties throughout the county. He added that there are already families interested in buying foreclosures under the partnership’s program.
In the meantime, according to housing analyst Jack McCabe and South Florida realtors, groups of flippers have been returning to South Florida looking for cheap investments that they can buy in cash.
What is heartening, according to McCabe, is that these new flippers are different from the flippers during the housing boom. Many of these new investors are committed to South Florida for the longer term. They are willing to fix the foreclosed properties before reselling them.
Many of these investors are represented by Pudlit Joint Venture which is represented by Robert Littman. According to Littman, his investors are doing what banks are not willing to do such as cleaning the houses, reroofing and fixing all defective systems of the properties.
