City seeks applicants for condos
By David Slade
The line forms Tuesday morning for a chance to buy a new condo in a desirable neighborhood on the Charleston peninsula for as little as $112,500.
The 42 condos known as the Cottages at Longborough are part of Charleston's home- ownership initiative and will be offered for sale to first-time, middle-income homebuyers.
The condos are on Alberta Street in the Longborough area of Wagener Terrace, several blocks north of Hampton Park on a street where single-family homes fetch $700,000 or more.
The two- and three-bedroom condos are affordable because they were built under a deal the city struck with The Beach Co. after the developer demolished a low-income apartment complex it owned in order to construct the new single-family-home development known as Longborough.
The development company agreed in 2001 to build the new housing for a discounted price of $125 per square foot, which amounts to condos prices of $112,500 to $150,000.
The city will sell the units at cost, and they are expected to be ready for occupancy in March.
"They are beautiful," said Geona Shaw Johnson, director of Charleston's Department of Housing and Community Development.
Previous Stories
Condo development might be ready in March, published 08/25/08
Condos finally to go up; Long-delayed work set to begin on affordable housing, published 10/10/07
At least eight of the condos are earmarked for prequalified buyers whose names were on city waiting lists for many years, but the rest will be first-come, first-served starting at 9 a.m. Tuesday.
The city and its banking partners will take applications at the Gaillard Auditorium, 77 Calhoun St. Turning in a filled application is what gets someone on the list for a condo.
Applications also will be taken Wednesday and Thursday.
In addition to being a first-time homebuyer, which actually means not having owned a home in the past three years, applicants must fall within the income guidelines, qualify for a mortgage and take a homebuyer-education class.
"Right now, the city is providing $10,000 in down-payment assistance for each unit," Johnson said. "Basically, it will be a deferred, forgivable loan, and if they stay there for 10 years, they won't owe anything."
Buyers will need to come up with an out-of-pocket down payment of just $2,500.
There are significant restrictions on future resales in order to make sure the condos remain affordable for the buyers who follow.
If someone buys one of the condos and later sells it, the sale price would be limited to the original purchase price, plus the increase since the sale date in either the consumer price index or the area median income, whichever is higher.
The income caps for buyers are set at 120 percent of the area median income.
That means a single person could earn no more than $49,080, a family of two could earn up to $56,040, the cap is $63,120 for a family of three, and a family of four could earn as much as $70,000.
There was a long waiting list with more than 400 names to buy the condos, but the project dragged on for years, and many on the list lost interest.
The city has prequalified eight buyers from the two lists it maintained, leaving 34 condos available.
Reach David Slade at 937-5552 or dslade@postand courier.com.
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Slick50 (anonymous) says...
"Right now, the city is providing $10,000 in down-payment assistance for each unit," Johnson said. "Basically, it will be a deferred, forgivable loan, and if they stay there for 10 years, they won't owe anything."
Wow...Main Street copying Wall Street. Wonder how this idea will end up?
October 12, 2008 at 6:07 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
exorcist_pencocky4u (anonymous) says...
"The condos are on Alberta Street in the Longborough area of Wagener Terrace, several blocks north of Hampton Park on a street where single-family homes fetch $700,000 or more."
I wonder how many of those suckered into a $700,000 home are now feeling the pain of being ripped off and raped by the greedy, rich, Democrats running things in charleston.
The real value is more like $180,000 - $200,000. If you vote in obama then the pain really starts.
October 12, 2008 at 8:49 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
zyvin (anonymous) says...
Darn, i do not qualify as a single person by 1k dollars. Yet i cannot afford anything else in this town either. I guess single white guys with no kids are doomed to rent forever.
October 12, 2008 at 10:12 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
kontact (anonymous) says...
zyvin-You idiot,how many minorities do you think they had in mine when they thought about these condos? None.Majority of minorities will relocate into a house for the same price idiot. Historically minorities dont purchase condos at the same rate of whites. Another case of the gentrification of downtown Charleston. You havent travelled that area in a while have you? Dont make excuses for another waste or appropiation of tax dollars for the wealthy under the guise of helping the working class.BALONEY!! These condos will be the most racially segregated this side of the crosstown.
October 12, 2008 at 10:43 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
holly123 (anonymous) says...
Kontact, A minority school board member lives in Longborough. It is very diverse, as diverse as the school her child attends. (giggle giggle)
October 12, 2008 at 12:39 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
zyvin (anonymous) says...
My mistake, you are correct kontact. In fact the minorities will be relocating into houses under the govt dime because for some reason people living in govt assisted housing cannot stop having babies. I propose a new plan, if you are living in govt housing and you have a baby, you get kicked out (black or white)....I must be an idiot because I do not see any houses for the same price anywhere in that area...
October 12, 2008 at 12:54 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
cplpunishment (anonymous) says...
Wow kontact...looks like you didn'd do all your homework!!! LOL.....YOU HAVE TO WORK TO MOVE UP IN SOCIETY!!!
October 12, 2008 at 12:55 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
shoelaces (anonymous) says...
I think I would be a little po'd if I lived in one of the $700K and up homes near this condo complex.
What school district is it? Sanders Clyde....??
October 12, 2008 at 3:23 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
PalmettoDP (anonymous) says...
So someone purchasing a $125,000 condo would only have to come up with a $2,500 down payment - or 2%. That's insane. We never had "mortgage meltdowns" back in the days when you had to come up with a 20% down payment.
October 12, 2008 at 6:42 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
WSM (anonymous) says...
MASSIVE TRUANCY FROM COUNTY MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOLS, MOB OF YOUTHS CROWD GAILLARD AUDITORUM.
Tuesday morning saw massive truancy from local area middle and high schools, with no apparent explanation.
A teacher at one of the local high schools stated, " It was, like, really weird, and stuff. There was like, no kids in the class, and I am like, 'Gee Betty, where are the students?'"
Many guidance and counselling professionals cited several reasons as to why there was such a massive absentee rate at the schools, such as: breakfast not being good enough, the demands of moderate physical labor at the childrens' homes,and resistance to the bourgoise system and saying no to King Bush's war.
Meanwhile, mobs of excited youths crowded Gaillard Auditorium, with several disturbances and fistfights breaking out.
Debbie DuGooder of the Charleston Housing Authority spoke of the dialogue that took place between herself and several angry youths. "They were all abuzz and demanding where 'they' were, and I asked 'What?' They said that they were all there for condoms, and I told them that they didn't understand, the flyers said 'condos.'"
Ms. DuGooder the tearfully recounted how things then began to turn ugly.
"I mean, these kids couldn't read and discern the difference between 'condo' and 'condom.' I know they're in Charleston County schools, but I didn't know that it was that bad. When they figured out that this was a line for properties and not prophylactics, they started screaming that 'there was going to be a revolution up in this bitch,' and 'burn mother$#&!#%, burn!'"
Charleston City Police sent its School Crimes And Resourse to Educator Detachment (SCARED) to enforce standard discipline as normal for the schools within the city, and in the process, 25 truants were arrested on outstanding warrants ranging from armed robbery, murder, and assault with intent to ravish.
Reporter for this story is John Holmes, and can be reached at JHolmes@Trojans.com
October 12, 2008 at 10:33 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
vtsusa (anonymous) says...
WSM----ROFLMAO!!
October 13, 2008 at 5:36 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
letstakeawalk (anonymous) says...
I'm goen dun ther 2 aply. Sryus! Hop itz nut is bad is WSM sayuz! I wanna condo!
Please nobody else show up! I'm a lower-income fellow, and I already rent in the 'hood, so I might as well try, right?
October 13, 2008 at 11:11 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
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