Multiple housing markets across South Florida saw considerable drops in value and demand, particularly Miami and its neighboring Miami Beach. Palm Beach real estate on the other hand experienced drops to a lesser degree, keep its housing demand comparably healthy. Combined with the lower prices of real estate overall, it opens up new doors for families to find a single family home in Palm Beach. The stuff going on behind the scenes however is making things even better for people looking to own a Palm Beach home.
Consider the State Housing Initiative Partnership (SHIP) program being given to Palm Beach County by the state of Florida. Nearly nine million dollars is being given with the intention of helping low income homeowners reduce the costs of owning their first home while continuing existing efforts to assist yet another struggling homeowner from becoming the next foreclosure statistic.
Before local governments can actually receive funds from SHIP program, they must meet certain criteria. For starters, there must already be some kind of homeownership assistance program in place. Mortgage rates in a neighborhood must also justify and or reflect the general value of homes within the neighborhood in question and cannot be higher than thirty percent of the average value.
While it’s geared towards funding and further developing homeownership and foreclosure prevention programs, the SHIP funds can be used for other real estate related ventures like building new beachfront condos or creating counseling programs to further assist struggling homeowners with managing their debt and their finances.
For many first time home buyers, one of the biggest goals is being able to make a down payment on a place that they can call their own and yet the biggest hurdle is often the costly fees involved before receiving the keys to one’s brand new beachfront property. SHIP can therefore be deemed a noble step in the right direction.
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