From the Jersey Journal:
A number of residents of the Borinquen Houses, a Jersey City low-income housing complex, have received official-looking letters offering to sell them their homes before they’re made to face market rates for rent, and officials say the letter is a complete fraud.
“I have no idea whatsoever who is behind it, but it is an incredibly cruel thing to do to low-income people who are just trying to live in their homes, because it implies their homes will be sold,” Susan Mearns, head of Hudson County Division of Housing and Community Development, said yesterday.
The letterhead states it is from the “State of New Jersey Division of Housing and Community Development,” an agency that doesn’t exist.
The letter says management of the 300-unit complex is reviewing residents’ incomes to determine if they have the ability to buy their homes.
The letter provides some strange guidelines to let residents know if they’d be able to afford to buy their units: if they have a car newer than a 1995 model, make more than $10,000 per year per resident of the household, and have a body fat percentage greater than 10 percent.
The letter says one-bedroom units cost $300,000, two-bedroom units are $400,000, and three-bedroom homes are $510,000.
It states that the low-income residents who cannot buy their units would pay market-rate rent, as well as water and maintenance fees, real estate tax and school tax, “so everyone pays their fair share for lovely housing.”
One criteria for buying, the body fat % criteria, would be interesting to use for really high end homes. Because you can afford a personal trainer and chef, you could hit high single digits.
Thanks Grim for another chapter of weird, wacky and funny stuff from the world of real estate.
JM
That should be true in Highlands where almost every resident of the low-income housing project drives a car newer than 2004 and makes money by renting out rooms. Since the HA can’t do an unannounced inspection it’s amazing to see all the moving trucks that appear around that time as they scramble to remove valuables.
Is that for real? Body fat percentage? This seems awfully bizarre. Almost like a cruel joke.
PBS:=> Housing in the United States is taking a big hit …..
Housing in the United States is taking a big hit as “too-good-to-be-true” home loans fail, refinancing dries up, and foreclosures surge. How did the market plummet so quickly — and are current homeowners paying the price? NOW revisits a California town whose real estate fortunes have taken a hard turn for the worse.
Video: http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/317/video.html
Past Due and Pay Day
http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/317/index.html
The real estate reality kicks in !!!
PBS:) Housing in the United States is taking a big hit …..
Housing in the United States is taking a big hit as “too-good-to-be-true” home loans fail, refinancing dries up, and foreclosures surge. How did the market plummet so quickly — and are current homeowners paying the price? NOW revisits a California town whose real estate fortunes have taken a hard turn for the worse.
Video:
Past Due and Pay Day
http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/317/index.html
The real estate reality kicks in !!!
Sounds like the misguided work of either a fed-up taxpayer or Jersey City home buyer in over his head; resentful that his or her neighbors are getting a break on rent, while in his mind, they can pay a bigger share because they drive newer cars and eat more than is required for basic sustenance.
Is that for real? Body fat percentage? This seems awfully bizarre. Almost like a cruel joke.
I take it the implication is that if you can afford to stuff your face you can afford to pay more for housing.