CAMARILLO : 4 ‘1st-Time Buyer’ Houses Up for Grabs

Four houses intended for first-time home buyers can be sold to others, the Camarillo City Council decided.

Ponderosa Development, the builder of an “affordable housing” project, was granted permission recently to sell to people who have previously owned homes.

Under the city’s agreement with Ponderosa, the houses could be held for first-time buyers for only six months, said Matthew A. Boden, director of planning and community development.

The Oak View Ridge project was completed in July. Eighteen of the single-family houses were sold to first-time buyers at an average price of $179,000, Boden said.

David Brown, a Ponderosa spokesman, said hundreds of applicants were screened for eligibility. But they either did not meet the purchasing requirements or decided against buying the houses.

First-time buyers had to have a household income of less than $28,928, which is 80% of the area’s median income. The buyers also had to agree to a 15-year restriction on the home’s resale price, limiting their profit to two-thirds of the percentage increase in the Ventura-area consumer price index, Boden said.

The purpose of the waiver “is to broaden the marketability” of the houses, Brown said. The income limit has been removed, but buyers still must promise to limit the price of the houses when they are resold, Boden said.