MONTEREY HILLS : Workshop Planned for Home Buyers

The city’s Community Redevelopment Agency and the East-West Federal Bank will conduct a free workshop Saturday for first-time home buyers who are interested in this 211-acre hillside residential area.

“This is an opportunity to help the existing condominiums there, to make them affordable to the rest of the city,” said Susan Totaro, project manager for the CRA’s effort to help first-time home buyers move to Chinatown. The agency also operates a program for home buyers in North Hollywood.

Officials from the East-West Federal Bank and the CRA will explain home-buying, help buyers determine if they qualify for a home loan and show them how to obtain mortgage financing.

To encourage home buyers to purchase in the area, the CRA will provide qualified buyers with second trust deed loans that are repayable only if their home is sold or refinanced. No monthly payment on the second trust deed is required.

Known as “soft seconds,” second trust deeds give home buyers greater purchasing power, especially if a buyer does not qualify for full financing or does not have a large enough down payment.

The Los Angeles City Council and the CRA will provide up to 50 second trust deeds to moderate-income, first-time home buyers who purchase homes in the Monterey Hills area. To qualify under the program as moderate-income, the annual combined income of a family of four must not exceed $60,500. Income limits vary with household size.

The workshop will be from 10 a.m. to noon in the community room of the Eaton Crest housing complex, 4499 Via Marisol, east of Monterey Road.

Monterey Hills is four miles northeast of Downtown Los Angeles, off the Pasadena Freeway near Highland Park. The subdivision, which has 21 condominium complexes with 1,611 housing units, was established in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Information: (800) 562-6392, Ext. 402 or 403.