You’ve saved up a nest egg, at least a little one. You would like to own a home, and you think you’d feel more secure if you bought a multi-family home you could live in and also collect some rent each month. My suggestion: at least explore the possibility of doing that in Lakewood. I’ve written about it before, but it bears repeating-they have a kick #*%$&% First Time Home Buyers program. You can read about it here. Here is the scoop:
First, plan to buy it and live in it and stay for at least five years, renting out the other unit.
You write an offer to buy a multi-family home. The City of Lakewood will contribute $14,000 towards your down-payment and closing costs. Why stay at least five years? At the end of five years, 50% of that money is ‘forgiven’. For every year you stay after that, 20% more of the loan is ‘forgiven.’ Until you reach 100%. Lakewood has always been a popular place for rentals and the prices are unusually good at the moment. Which gets me to the second half of this post.
Currently there are 556 total homes (single family and condo and multi-family) for sale in the City of Lakewood. 413 of them are single family. That leaves 143 multi-families of which the majority are doubles or two family homes. The first five homes listed are doubles with asking prices under $60,000.
For $69,900 you can get a double on Idlewood, just south of Clifton and two streets west of W. 117th. This one actually has photos (how are the first six homes going to sell with no photos!) and it looks really nice on paper. It has had the same owner for five decades; in fact, this is an estate sale.
There is a larger (2,116 sq ft) double available for $95,000 on Wyandotte (my old stomping ground, I used to own and live in a double on Chesterland). The photos for this home make it seem well kept and attractive with lots of original moldings not painted.
Okay so with 143 of them, I could go on and on but let me just make a few observations. One, yes there are homes listed and sold for less than $30k when five yrs ago you couldn’t dream of buying a double in Lakewood for that price. However, the majority of the multi-families are still above $75k. If you buy a home for less than $120k, get a great down-payment assistance from The City of Lakewood so you can lower your mortgage even more, this could really be a good idea for you as a First Time Home Buyer.
Since January, 58 multi-family homes have sold in Lakewood, between the prices of $19,000 and $235,000. The average number of days these homes were on the market was 94. The average listing price was $92,006, the average sale price was $85,348 — that translates to sellers getting 92% of their asking price, on average.
Peace Out – 3C
Lakewood Happenings, Per City Website
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