"Even if you find somebody in that range, people today are overextended" with debts, said Thomas Carbo, deputy county housing director who ran the MIHU event. He said the county is considering a pilot financing program that could reduce the financial burden somewhat, but no details are yet available.
Right now, MIHU buyers can get a 1,400- to 1,700-square-foot condominium apartment or town house for between $70,000 to $140,000 below retail prices, which range from the $250,000's to around $350,000, depending on the unit.
The two Belmont Station town houses seemed the most popular, with six families vying for them. Those units cost MIHU buyers $209,005 each. They're set in a community just north of Route 100 that features attractive stone-front homes, a community center and a swimming pool.
Carbo directed the drawing, using the county's gold-colored, hand-turned cylinder to choose which applicants got the selected units.
Carles Hughes Jr., 37, a machinist who works in Elkridge but lives with his fianc?e and their two children in a northwest Baltimore rental, sat with his family and his mother, Carlitta Coates, 58, of Odenton, in the front row, hoping for a Belmont Station home.
He and Tanya Hill, 32, a radiology billing clerk, were awarded the right to buy a three-bedroom, 2.5 bath Village Towns town house for $200,359 instead. Village Towns is west of U.S. 1 off Port Capitol Drive, in Elkridge.
Hughes was eager to move in before school starts in August for his children Carles III, 5, and Deasia, 12, but was told the new house won't be ready until late in the fall.
"It's better out here. I heard the schools are better," Hughes said, and the family often visits The Mall in Columbia and Howard's restaurants, he added.
larry.carson@baltsun.com
