Westminster : Mortgage Bonds OKd to Provide Housing Loans

The state has authorized the city to issue up to $20 million in mortgage revenue bonds to provide funds for 30-year, fixed-rate loans to buy new and existing housing units.

City Administrator Chris C. Christiansen said he expects the interest rates to be no higher than 10 3/4%, with down payments as low as 5%.

The loans will only apply to Westminster, and certain guidelines must be met:

A residence cannot cost more than $165,880.

Annual income cannot exceed $55,176 for new home buyers, $44,141 for buyers of older homes.

Buyers must not have owned a home within the past three years.

“These (dollar) figures are the best estimates we have at the present time,” Christiansen said. “However, we have reason to believe they may go slightly higher.”

The first trust deed money, an outgrowth of the city’s Redevelopment Agency, is expected to be available Aug. 1. Buyers qualifying for the loans will be required to pay debt service “just as if they had borrowed in a conventional manner,” Christiansen said.

The program is being put together at no cost to the city or Redevelopment Agency by four firms: Norwest Mortgage of Minneapolis, Urban Futures of Fullerton, Stradling, Yocca, Carlson & Rauth of Newport Beach and Miller & Schroeder Municipals of Solana Beach in San Diego County.

To apply, buyers or their real estate brokers should contact one of the financing companies.