The Star Tribune has an article regarding a plan in Minneapolis to give $10,000 in assistance to buyers in many of Minneapolis’ hardest hit neighborhoods. While the program being discussed is limited to only 50 buyers ($500,000 in funds), it is a good start.
Depending on the property, the city may be able to get away with less than $10,000 in grant money and still get buyers into properties, thereby allowing them to help more people purchase more homes. With 2900 foreclosures in Minneapolis in 2007 alone, the 50 purchasers that will receive this financing amount to only 1.7% of the foreclosures city-wide last year.
With the RMLS�currently listing at least 360 properties in foreclosure or short sale in North and Camden alone, even if the money were limited to just these neighborhoods (which it isn’t) and nothing else was listed (which is a dream), it would still only address less than 1 in 7 of these negative equity listings on the market today.
Don’t get me wrong, this is a great start to solving the Minneapolis Housing Crisis but it will require a lot more $$$, hopefully from both public and private entities, to reverse this problem.
