23 May Three New Programs to Help Homebuyers in Belair-Edison
During the foreclosure and economic crisis, many communities in Baltimore lost homeowners and home values declined. At Belair-Edison Neighborhood Inc. we noticed that in recent years, more than half of the real estate transactions in the community were distressed sales.
To retain current residents and attract new ones we identified a need for a stronger competitive advantage to our neighborhood and developed three new programs we will be rolling out in July. These strategic initiatives will focus on three areas: attract qualified buyers; encourage home investment by current owners; and re-think foreclosure as an opportunity to intervene in real estate transitions ahead of unscrupulous investors.
The Rapid Equity Building Program will provide new buyers with smart financial tools to use while buying their home in Belair-Edison. We hope to use this program to convert many of our current renters to homeowners in our neighborhood.
Current homeowners having difficulty keeping up with the external maintenance of their homes will be able to make much-needed repairs with the Home Improvement/Home Repair Deferred Loan Program, without a major impact on their current household expenses.
Lastly, those homes that have been foreclosed on will be restored to homeownership through our Foreclosure Intervention Buying Program.
To kick-off this initiative and to help transition renters to homeowners BENI will host an Equity Builder Workshop the third Thursday of every month from 6:00 pm -8:00 pm at the BENI office. The workshops are offered to all renters in the Belair-Edison community. During the workshop renters will learn:
- Benefits of buying a home versus renting a home
- The home buying process
- Homebuyer education
- Mortgage information
- Down payment assistance programs
- Rapid Equity Initiative
If you’d like more information on the Home Improvement/Home Repair Deferred Program or the Foreclosure Intervention Buying Program, please contact John Watkins at john@belair-edison.org or call 410-485-8422 x4208.