Real Estate Journal — Central New Jersey — August 11 - 24, 2017 — 9B
www.marejournal.com
M id A tlAntic
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+elping build neighborhood revitali]ation 9iew from the Top New -ersey +ousing and Mortgage )inance Agency’s C+OICE 3rogram
in Roselle, New Jersey, on properties t ha t we r e once among a group of s c a t t e r e d empty lots seized by the borough. M
ore than a dozen new homes are now housing families
over $172 million in subsidy. In Camden, for example, the CHOICE program has been very successful and has gen- erated over 215 units since 2006. Now, the program is ex- panding with an additional $10 million, which will help further the agency’s mission of creating housing for New Jersey’s workforce families. All of the Roselle homes were sold or are selling as emerging market homes, meaning school teachers, police and firefighters, bus drivers and many others
can qualify for these homes, which are close to shopping and dining, transit and parks. These three-bedroom, two- and-a-half bath homes sold and are selling for between $200,000 and $225,000. In Trenton, the two- and three-bedroom townhomes included affordable homes (for incomes ranging from 45 to 72 percent of the Area Media Income), which were selling at the time for $75,500 to $200,900, and emerging market units selling between $165,000 and $227,000. “This subsidy helps spur
development in areas where it would be difficult to build and sell homes,” said HMFA executive director Anthony L. Marchetta. “We are proud of our efforts to provide solid, sta- ble affordable homes to New Jersey’s working families. The housing created through the CHOICE program helps to revitalize neighborhoods and stimulate additional economic investment.” The value of the CHOICE program, to both develop- ers and homebuyers, is sig- nificant. For developers, the CHOICE subsidy funding
fills the gap between the cost to build the housing unit and its achievable market sale price. For home buyers, the program offers a favorable HMFA mortgage program for eligible purchasers at 100 percent zero interest. The end result: For Roselle, once vacant lots are now be- ing occupied by newly built desirable homes. In Trenton, a waterfront neighborhood con- tinues to redevelop. In both, residents are contributing to the local economy and tax base, and the overall neighbor- hoods are improved. n
Anthony Marchetta
Roselle, like other com- munities, found that it had a number of properties ob- tained through tax foreclo- sures and embarked on a plan to have some of them developed. Among the responding de- velopers was Rose Urban Renewal, which designed a project to bring for-sale sin- gle-family emerging market homes to the lots in a scat- tered site redevelopment that ultimately will provide homes for 31 families. Rose Homes received fi- nancing from the New Jer- sey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency’s (HMFA) Choices in Home Ownership Incentives Created for Ev- eryone (CHOICE) program, a comprehensive program for the development of newly constructed and substantially rehabilitated owner-occupied housing in the state. The program is intended to be a catalyst for the cre- ation of home ownership opportunities by providing developers with construction and subsidy funding in areas where the market price of a for-sale unit is less than the reasonable cost of acquiring the land and constructing the unit. In Trenton, The Villages at Delaware Run, developed by K. Hovnanian, also received CHOICE funding to help build a mix of 84 market-rate and affordable single-family townhomes with a pocket park in a redevelopment area. These townhomes, built by one of the state’s largest home builders, continued to revitalize an area that in- cluded significant waterfront redevelopment. Rose Homes and The Vil- lages at Delaware Run are among the more than 4,500 home ownership units cre- ated since CHOICE began in 1996, for which HMFA has provided over $234 million in construction financing and
Villages at Delaware Run Mercer County K. Hovnanian Homes
When Financing Affordable Housing, NJHMFA is the Smart CHOICE. Housing created through the CHOICE program helps revitalize neighborhoods and stimulate economic investment. Discover the difference New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency’s innovative financing can make for your next development. Contact us today to get started! www.njhousing.gov • 609-278-7518
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