State program can help homebuilders

The West Virginia Housing Development Fund has brought back a popular home-building program.
Constructing Affordable Sensible Homes Program, or the CASH Program, encourages builders and modular home dealerships to construct and market single family homes.

“We sat down with builders and many in the housing community and attempted to redevelop this program and make it something that could work for everyone.” said Erica Boggess, the Fund’s Acting Executive Director.

Developed as a builder’s incentive program, CASH provides that the Fund will agree to purchase qualifying homes from qualified builders at a determined percentage of its final appraised value if the builder is unable to sell the house during a defined marketing period.

“By using CASH, builders across West Virginia can alleviate at least some of the risk inherent in home construction,” Boggess said.

CASH was initially created to address the lack of newly constructed and moderately-priced housing in North Central West Virginia, needed for the anticipated influx of potential homebuyers associated with the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division outside Clarksburg.

In 2008, the program was placed on hold because of a declining housing market in the state.
Boggess said CASH could work in conjunction with the Fund’s Demolition Program.

“The DEMO program is an affordable way for counties and cities to tear down abandoned buildings. It seems only natural that building a new home on a demolition site could go a long way toward revitalizing that neighborhood,” she said.

The West Virginia Housing Development Fund was established to increase the supply of residential housing for persons and families of low and moderate income, and to provide construction and permanent mortgage financing to public and private sponsors of such housing.