(WIVB) – If you are looking to grab up a piece of the American dream in this red hot housing market, you might be in luck.
Local officials in the City of Tonawanda cut the ribbon on a new build on Tuesday. The property is affordable and competition is limited, because you have to be income-qualified to even be considered for this new build in the City of Tonawanda.
KINGSTON, N.Y. — The Kingston City Land Bank is seeking a request for proposals for substantial renovations of two single-family homes in Kingston.
BINGHAMTON, NY – The Broome County Land Bank is working on renovating 5 properties, one of them is completed and up for sale.
The first renovated home in 2021 is located at 124 Gaylord Street in the City of Binghamton.
WELLSVILLE —The Allegany County Land Bank marked the completion to construction of a three bedroom, single-family home in Wellsville with a ribbon cutting this week.
The 1,320-square-foot contemporary home sits on over an acre and a half of property that had a long history of being vacant/abandoned and unwanted — going through multiple county tax auctions without a buyer.
“The Land Bank worked with Alfred State, the County, the village of Wellsville and local contractors to change 79 Clark from an overgrown problem property to a newly built great home,” said Jason Isaman, executive director at the Allegany County Land Bank.
Improving neglected properties can help challenged neighborhoods rebound, Humbert believes. He pointed to the recent Lawrence Street project in Lyons, where he said the rehabilitation and redevelopment of a vacant and dilapidated home into the Child Advocacy Center of Wayne County resulted in additional homeowners improving their properties on the street.
“It becomes contagious,” he said. “We want to get the parcels, do the right thing, whether repair or demolish, and get them back on the tax rolls as quickly as possible.”
New York has ended the Covid-19 state of emergency, signaling the beginning of the post-pandemic era. Federal, state, and local leaders, front-line workers, businesses, nonprofits, community groups and residents did a remarkable job working together to transcend silos and prioritize preserving our collective well-being. Now we must do the same to help our neighborhoods recover and build a better future.
Now a police dispatcher, she could probably qualify for a traditional loan today. But she's glad she went the route she did, purchasing her home from the Albany County Land Bank with a loan from Home HeadQuarters.
Home prices are beginning to respond to previous investments in poor neighborhoods, said Katelyn Wright, executive director of the Greater Syracuse Land Bank. In areas of the city that have traditionally struggled, such as the South and Near West sides, buyers are showing a new willingness to spend.
The City Council is expected to help provide the Capital Region Land Bank with the financial wherewithal to reimagine a two-family residence that has been vacant for at least four years.
The Capital Region Land Bank has brought in more than $9 million in grant funding for projects, the majority of which have come from bank settlements after the mortgage foreclosure crisis in late 2008.
ALBANY — As the city awaits $85 million in federal COVID-19 relief funding, community organizations have asked the COVID-19 Recovery Taskforce to prioritize neighborhood revitalization.
The Albany County Land Bank, along with Capital District Habitat for Humanity and the Albany Community Land Trust, wrote a letter Monday proposing that the task force allocate $20 million — roughly a quarter of its overall funding — toward preserving and revitalizing historically underserved neighborhoods.
How can nearly a century of damage be remedied? While there is no cure-all, one answer was resounding among real estate professionals, real estate lawyers, city officials and others: boosting Black homeownership through grants and anti-racist lending practices.
Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh unveiled a plan to spend the city’s $123 million in federal stimulus money on at least 30 separate initiatives aimed at a sweeping array of urban needs.
Plan to allocate $14 million to build or improve housing in the city's low-income neighborhoods, including providing $5 million to the Greater Syracuse Land Bank to assist with reclaiming vacant buildings.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a $300,000 Brownfields Program assessment grant for properties in Fulton County and an $800,000 multipurpose grant for the Greater Mohawk Valley Land Bank.
New $25 million Legacy Cities initiative will transform vacant and blighted buildings in upstate cities into affordable homeownership opportunities for low- & moderate-income residents with priority given to first-time buyers and households of color.
The Broome County Land Bank acquired 2300 Owego Road in Vestal as a result of a Broome County tax foreclosure in March earlier this year. The residential property located in the Town of Vestal's Ross Corners neighborhood sat vacant for years causing severe neglect and outstanding structural issues. After the record breaking snowfall during the December's storm last year, the roof collapsed on itself falling into the house.
FORT PLAIN — The Greater Mohawk Valley Land Bank recently reached a milestone – the organization has invested some $750,000 to rehabilitate and demolish blighted properties throughout Montgomery County, and is now preparing those properties for market.
Read more here.
ALBANY COUNTY — To deal with racial disparities in home ownership, the Albany County Land Bank is partnering with a not-for-profit housing development organization based in Syracuse.
Home HeadQuarters Inc. says it is the leading home-improvement lender to families of color living in Syracuse, out-lending all other financial institutions combined. Founded in 1996, it is the nation’s first designated Community Based Development Organization.
Albany County set up its land bank in 2014 to redistribute tax-foreclosed, vacant, or abandoned properties, returning the properties to productive use.
The new partnership will “provide more opportunities for historically underserved populations and minority contractors to purchase real estate and build wealth,” according to a release from the land bank.
Read more here.
ALBANY — The Albany County Land Bank is now working with a Syracuse-based organization to help city residents who can’t access traditional forms of financing and are interested in buying a land bank property.
The partnership with Home HeadQuarters Inc., a nonprofit housing and community development organization, is meant to increase access to the resources residents need to purchase and rehab land bank properties, especially those in traditionally underserved neighborhoods.
Read more here.
The lender has the flexibility to consider factors other than credit scores to determine a borrower's risk, such as timeliness of rent payments, said Adam Zaranko, executive director of Albany County Land Bank. "It could be a game changer," he said.
Read more here.
SCHENECTADY — The Capital Region Land Bank’s board of directors and The Schenectady Foundation have agreed to build a splash pad at Wallingford Park.
The splash pad will be built in the city’s Mont Pleasant neighborhood as part of the Thriving Neighborhoods Challenge program that seeks to engage residents and neighborhood groups to revitalize neighborhoods and awards grants to unique proposals.
Read more here.