Uncle Sam offers relocating military personnel some aid
There's nothing like having to relocate during a housing slump to give you heartburn if you're a homeowner, especially if you bought just a few years ago. But if you're in the military, you might be due some help.
The Department of Defense -- which employs a lot of people who have to move around every few years -- has $555 million earmarked to reimburse personnel for some of the difference between their purchase and selling price. That includes BRAC folks, the people moving to Maryland (and elsewhere in the country) for the national base realignment and closure process.
While the initiative "is not designed to pay 100 percent of losses or to cover all declines in value, it can help protect eligible applicants from financial catastrophe due to significant losses in their home values," the DOD said.
Here's how the agency is prioritizing the money, which comes from the February stimulus package:
1. Homeowners wounded, injured, or ill in the line of duty while deployed since Sept. 11, 2001, and relocating in furtherance of medical treatment;2. Surviving spouse homeowners relocating within two years after the death of their spouse;
3. Homeowners affected by the 2005 BRAC round, without the need (which existed under previous law) to prove that a base closure announcement caused a local housing market decline; and
4. Service member homeowners receiving orders dated on or after Feb. 1, 2006, through Dec. 31, 2009, for a permanent change of station (PCS) move. The orders must specify a report-no-later-than date on or before Feb. 28, 2010, to a new duty station or home port outside a 50-mile radius of the service member’s former duty station. These dates may be extended to Sept. 30, 2012, based on availability of funds.
More details about the expanded Homeowners Assistance Program here. Might this apply to you?
And for non-military folks: Have any of you received help from your employer for a relocation?
Comments
I am a buyer that has a contract for the sale of a home which is pending money from this program. Basically, the sellers could not afford to lose as much money as they would, given the decline in value, except for this program. Also, it could theoretically help me buy a home that would otherwise be a short sale, without having to deal with the downfalls of a short sale.
But there has yet to be any money. And on top of that, now that the DoD has given guidance on the use of the money that is supposedly now starting to flow as of last week, I'm not even sure of the following items (as you can see, I have more questions than answers):
1. Must the house be sold at current market value for a non-short-sale home (our contract appears to maybe be lower than market?) to get government assistance. Or does the program allow for the property to be sold for the reduced market value of this property AS a short-sale.
2. How much money is there, really? Everyone thinks it's $555 million. But I've also read quotes from government officials who say that it's only less than 1% of that, or $5 million. It seems that given the number of applications (at least $4000), that $5mil won't even make a dent in the problem. Our home may not even be covered, because our sellers fall under category 4 (PCS), and are not priority wounded veterans or widows. What is that other $550 million going to be used for?
3. Taxes: If our sellers are not able to bring the money needed to cover income tax to the table, we may be stuck waiting even longer, maybe until the money is all gone. When is Congress going to act to make these benefits tax-exempt?
4.
Posted by: JWC | October 6, 2009 6:31 PM