$1 Billion in Federal Grants to Help the Housing Market

photo credit: cljo

The U.S. Housing and Urban Development awarded $1 billion to states and other local communities to help with the foreclosure crisis. This money is the third round of funding of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) to assist in the redevelopment and reestablishment of the housing market. The funding is designated to assist local communities in acquiring foreclosed and demolished properties to redevelop the neighborhoods.

"These grants will support local efforts to reverse the effects these foreclosed properties have on their surrounding neighborhoods," said Shaun Donovan, Housing and Urban Development Secretary. "We want to make certain that we target these funds to those places with especially high foreclosure activity so we can help turn the tide in our battle against abandonment and blight. As a direct result of the leadership provided by Senator Chris Dodd and Congressman Barney Frank, who played key roles in winning approval for these funds, we will be able to make investments that will reduce blight, bolster neighboring home values, create jobs and produce affordable housing."

To date there have been over five billion in federal funding to help the housing market. The first round of funding was in 2008 from the Housing and Economic Recovery Act and gave $3.92 billion in funding and the second round was the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which granted $2 billion to the housing recovery effort. The idea with this round of funding, as with the first two, is to purchase foreclosed properties and rehabilitate or redevelop them in responding to falling home values.

Read the full announcement from the U.S. Department of Hosing and Urban Development.

Posted on September 09, 2010 13:18:27 by Blog Author