y DENNIS WILKENTGI Staff Writer A new and improved equity appreciation program for the county’s homebuyer loan program will, according to county housing officials, discourage speculation and limit windfall profits. Under the program, eligible recipients buy a house and interest
y DENNIS WILKENTGI Staff Writer
A new and improved equity appreciation program for the county’s homebuyer
loan program will, according to county housing officials, discourage
speculation and limit windfall profits.
Under the program, eligible
recipients buy a house and interest on the purchase is subsidized at 3
percent, 5 percent below current market rates, said Matty Yoshioka, Kaua`i
Community Services director.
According to the new legislation endorsed by
the County Council’s Housing/Parks Committee last Wednesday, the county will
begin to forgive part of its share of any appreciation after the first three
years of the loan.
The forgiveness aspect of the plan is on a straight
line declining scale and begins at the end of year three and ends at the end
year 10, when the county’s share is zero.
Loans range from 15 percent to 80
percent of the total price of the house.
Before voting in committee,
council members Randal Valenciano and Ron Kouchi said they had previously
opposed similar programs, but the protections included in the new measure
eradicated their opposition.
Yoshioka said homebuyers already involved in
the county’s old plan would remain under their original contracts and wouldn’t
be switched over.
“We didn’t think that would be fair,” she told the
council.
Staff writer Dennis Wilken can be reached at 245-3681 (ext
.252) and dwilken@pulitzer.net
