By definition these loans are starting out on day one as SUBPRIME or worse.

MORGAGE payment alone on a half million house at 6.125% is over $36,000 a year.
Add taxes, insurance, MORTGAGE insurance, upkeep, utilities, automobiles...god forbid, CHILDREN, and you are going to lose the house quickly with your "under $81,800" income.

And then you join the bellyachers: "Oh WHY didn't they TELL me that I needed more money to buy a house! Those banks are so EVIL...WAHHHH."

When someone has no money for a down payment, that is a huge signal that the person is financially incompetent. "Dear, we are paying $1,000/month in rent and haven't saved a dime in 5 years...let's buy a house and pay $4000 a month."

Sort of funny, so many of us should be interested in such programs since we are working in Manhattan.

I already looked into this program you also get a grant worth 5% of your mortgage which you don't have to pay back. You could go for the 4% program which is anywhere in N.J. with the low interest rate. It's only for a 30 year mortgage though.

Plus, you have to live in the property for the life of the mortgage.......A lifetime in JC? Don't think so....

Just some pop and circumstance if you ask me. Rates are lower than 6.125% currently plus Fannie Mae has programs like "my community" and flex 100% that are still availalble. FHA loans will still allow 97% as well. This is just an attention grabber imo

Jersey City joins 'Live Where You Work' program

by Russell Ben-Ali/The Star-Ledger
Wednesday April 30, 2008, 2:39 PM

People who work in Jersey City and want to live there but can't afford to buy property may get help through a state initiative, Mayor Jerramiah Healy and Commissioner Joseph Doria of the Department of Community Affairs announced today.

The "Live Where You Work" program will assist working families to make a downpayment, cover closing costs and secure a loan, Healy explained.

"Over the last at least 40 or 50 years, our police, our fire, our teachers, our nurses, our working people, which are the backbone of any city, have been leaving. Not just Jersey City, but every city," Healy said, noting Jersey City has drawn more empty-nesters and young, upwardly-mobile people in recent years. "We have lost our backbone."

Jersey City is the second municipality to join the Live Where You Work program. Trenton announced its participation earlier this year.

Through any of nearly 50 banks and mortgage companies working with the New Jersey Housing & Mortgage Finance Agency, Live Where You Work participants can secure 30- to 40-year fixed-rate mortgages at 6 1/8 percent interest, said Marge Della Vecchia, executive director of HMFA.

To participate, applicants from households with one or two people may make no more than $81,800, while a household of three or more people can make up to $94,070.

In urban target areas, parts of the city where the state is trying to encourage home ownership, the income caps are $98,160 for a one or two person household, and $114,520 for households of 3 or more people.

Price caps for the homes are set at $429,619 for a one-family house and $826,218 for a four-family home. In urban target areas, these caps are $525,090 for a one family-house, and more than a million for a four-family house.

More information about the program is available online or at (800) NJ-HOUSE.

http://www.state.nj.us/dca/hmfa/consu/buyers/close/live.html