College Park Is Looking for Some New Neighbors
The city of College Park is looking for a silver lining in the real estate slump with renewed promotion of its New Neighbors program.
The program provides grants of $7,500 for the purchase of any home in the city, if you’re a full-time city employee or a full-time certified officer with one of the following agencies: the Maryland State Police, Prince George’s County Police, Maryland-National Capital Park & Planning Police, Metro Transit Police or University of Maryland Police.
Others can apply for the grant if it’s for the purchase of a property in the city that’s been rented for at least two previous years.
Dorothy Friedman, a city planner, said the program is designed to stabilize and strengthen the community and to ease traffic congestion by making it easier for people to live close to where they work.
Although the program is meant to increase the number of owner-occupied houses in the city, it doesn’t prohibit homeowners from taking on renters, “if you want to have someone help you pay your mortgage,” Friedman said.
The only requirement is that buyers agree that the house will remain owner-occupied for at least five years. Otherwise, a pro-rated repayment of the grant is required.
About half of the $100,000 originally allotted for the program remains to be used, Friedman said.
Kathy Zentek and her husband Darren Zentek received the grant last year. They moved in November to a previous rental property on Clemson Road with their 10-month-old son because they wanted more space.
The grant allowed them to afford more home than they otherwise could have, said Kathy Zentek, who works for Prince George’s County schools as an English as a second language project coordinator.
“In the scheme of things,” she said, “it doesn’t sound like a lot of money. But it was the portion of the closing cost we couldn’t have afforded. It’s those closing costs that kill you sometimes.”
“It’s been amazing. Everyone’s super-friendly,” she said of her new neighbors.
Grant applications are available online or at College Park City Hall.
–By Maryland Newsline’s Tamra Tomlinson
April 5th, 2008 at 3:26 am
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