The
Orange County Housing Trust Governing body worked on establishing
guidelines and program descriptions for the Trust. These
were presented to and adopted by the Neighborhood Housing
Services of Orange County Board of Directors in February
of 2006.
Homeownership Assistance
- Up to a maximum of $5,000,000 to be used for low interest
second mortgage lending and down payment assistance.
Second mortgage loans up
to $110,000 will be available to first-time home buyers
with incomes up to 160% of area median income (AMI).
The 30-year amortized loans will have an interest rate approximately
1% below the market rate for first mortgages. (Current second
mortgage rate is 5%.) The OCHT will work with a variety
of financial institutions to provide the first mortgages
and allow additional subsidies from city, county and state
government or other programs that the borrower may qualify
for to leverage OCHT funds.
Down payment assistance loans
of $8,000 will be made available to borrowers who are first-time
buyers in Orange County or current Orange County homeowners
who will reduce their commute to their place of employment
by 30 miles a day. To qualify for this assistance the borrower(s)
must have incomes at below 140% of the AMI. The down payment
assistance loan carries a 1% interest and is payable in
full on the maturity date of the first mortgage or upon
any sale, transfer, assignment or refinancing of the first
mortgage. There is no prepayment penalty.
Property Development Assistance
It is anticipated that the majority
of OCHT funds will support the property development lending
program.
The property development lending program is designed to
increase the supply of affordable and workforce homes in
the county. Ownership, rental and special needs housing
may be financed by the Trust. Financing may be used for
the acquisition of property or to provide for predevelopment
costs associated with new housing, rehabilitating existing
housing or preserving affordability in existing projects.
The OCHT realizes that affordable
and work force housing is needed at all income levels in
the County. In the project selection process for the Property
Development Assistance funds, the OCHT will have a goal
of maintaining income levels in the following manner:
• 30% of supported units to be affordable to
households at 30% of AMI
• 30% of supported units to be affordable to
households between 30% to 80% of AMI
• 20% of supported units to be affordable to
households between 80% to 120% of AMI
• 20% of supported units to be affordable to
households between 120% to 160% of AMI
OCHT will support projects
with 2% to 6% loans for up to 24 months with the following
loan amounts:
• Projects with units targeting households below
80% of AMI may borrow up to $20,000 per qualifying unit
with a maximum loan amount of $600,000.
• Projects with units targeting households above
80% of AMI may borrow up to $15,000 per unit with a maximum
loan amount of $450,000.
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