New program helps homebuyers land Lakeview properties
07:35 AM CDT on Thursday, June 11, 2009
NEW ORLEANS – There is a new program designed to rid Lakeview of blighted properties and help fast track their recovery.
Ask residents in Lakeview, and they will tell you they are on the road to recovery, but still have a few minor bumps to overcome along the way.
"When people ride by and see vacant lots, it's natural to be skeptical about a community," said Todd Wallace, NORA property committee chairman for the Lakeview Civic Association.
There are about 500 state-owned, Road Home properties in Lakeview, meaning hundreds of abandoned homes and empty lots. And while some of that land is being sold through the Lot Next Door program, about half of it sits stagnant.
Now, a new project, the Phase Two program, gives more people an opportunity to buy in Lakeview, regardless of where they live.
"For someone who doesn't have homestead exemptions, who didn't qualify for the Lot Next Door program, this is the program designed to bring families back who are ready to build, or expand yards, and it's open to anyone," said Wallace.
About 250 properties are identified as qualifying for the Phase Two program, with the express purpose of moving vacant properties fast to help Lakeview come back. Residents, like Janet Phillpott, who, until now, has not had the ability or the opportunity to come home.
"This will permit people to come back. Not developers. It'll permit people to buy a lot," she said. "It will permit the people that need a little help because they have been wiped out financially."
There are some criteria that must be met for the Phase Two Program:
-- The program is strictly for single-lot purchases.
-- The owner must start building within one year of buying the property.
-- The buyer, or an immediate family member must live there themselves.
-- The Phase Two property can also be purchased for expansion of neighboring or adjacent property.
-- The buyer must agree not to re-sell the property within three years.
"We want pepole to drive through Lakeview and see that these lots and houses are no longer there, that these are now beautiful new homes, or beautiful landscaped yards with adjacent land," said Wallace.
All of the properties will be independently appraised at fair market value by the end of June. Interested buyers must submit bids by Aug. 1.
Click here for a list of the properties that qualify for the Phase Two program, and for more information on how to bid, and all of the criteria that must be met.


