Incentive Programs Key to Housing Backlog

Many prospective home buyers are unaware of some pivotal programs designed to help make the purchase of a home more affordable. These include assistance with down payments, special financing and even tax breaks on your purchase.

One key demographic that is helped with such incentives are police officers, emergency workers, and especially teachers. These programs are especially important to helping encourage homeownership within one of the most underserved areas of the population.  Furthermore, they help alleviate the glut of vacant homes crippling many communities throughout the country. 

One of these programs is the Teacher Next Door Program allowing qualified teachers the opportunity to purchase a HUD-owned property at 50% of the asking price. Its goal is to have teachers buy homes and commit to living in them for at least 3 full years. Another similar program opens up the same possibilities for police officers.  Teachers, firefighters and emergency medical technicians can help revitalize their communities through HUD's Good Neighbor Next Door Sales Program.

Several real estate companies offer fee rebates for using their agencies. On a local level, counties officers offer applicable employees access to various incentives.  The Howard County Maryland Public School system has the Employee Incentive Program allowing mortgage and real estate incentives, which include closing cost credits and lower rates.

In a time when many Americans are suffering from poor economic conditions and unemployment levels still stubbornly high at over 8%, people often rush to place blame. The target of the blame (often justified) is political figures ranging from the President on the national level all the way down toward local City Council members. When people suffer it is a natural inclination to look at those who are believed responsible for their troubles. Since the start of the downturn in 2008 the root cause of the problems has included members of Wall Street, Banks, Mortgage brokers, the Federal Reserve Board, among many others.

When economic conditions have deteriorated to the level where public services need to be cut, taxes raised or a combination of both – public sentiment turns against the biggest expenditure of all, public sector employees. A common belief is that is immune to the cancelled pensions, layoffs, furloughs, and pay cuts that a large group of private sector employees face. As a result, sentiment turns against public sector employees and the unions that represent them. In actuality, many jurisdictions – many public employees, such as NYC public school teachers face the same fate as those in the private sector.

There is no doubting the system in place for the public sector needs some kind of overhaul. However, teachers, police officers, emergency workers and fire department personnel are all some of the most underappreciated groups in our current economy, and remain the back bone of most communities. Special housing programs allow an opportunity for this key demographic to live closer to where they work and become a more entrenched fixture in the communities they represent.

These programs are also vital to the redevelopment of many areas, directly resulting in more jobs, safer communities, and the chance for a better education for the children of local residents. With the sale of vacant or foreclosed homes property values become more stable, in turn increasing property tax revenues to the state budget. An unoccupied home cannot be taxed, and plummeting house values reduces the revenue collected by the state for currently occupied homes.  

These improvements to the neighborhood also decrease crime and recreate the sense of community which has been lost in so many areas.  

These benefits are not just about entitlement spending. They are about societal issues whose benefits are far outweighed by minimal expense associates with the administering of such programs.