Affordable Housing Lotteries MA
Understand How They Work and How You Can Apply
MA Affordable Housing Lottery Overview
What is a Housing Lottery?
An affordable Housing Lottery is to give low-moderate income households, the opportunity of Home Ownership. This is a ‘First-Time’ home buyer program, through Mass Housing, in which Potential Buyers (Applicants) submit their application along with supporting documents to be reviewed and approved for the program. Once the application is reviewed and the applicant is deemed eligible for the Affordable Program, he/she will be submitted into a drawing for the next available affordable homes/condos.
MGL 40B “ANTI-SNOB ZONING ACT” Overview
The Massachusetts Comprehensive Permit Law M.G.L. c. 40B §§ 20-23, enacted as Ch. 774 of the Acts 1969, also known as the Comprehensive Permit Statute, Ch. 40B or the “Anti-Snob” Zoning Act, encourages the Construction of Affordable Housing using locally granted permits.
It was enacted to help address the shortage of affordable housing statewide by reducing unnecessary barriers created by the local approval process, local zoning and other restrictions. A “Comprehensive Permit” is an all-encompassing permit which subsumes all permits and approvals normally issued by other local boards.
The Act requires all communities to use a streamlined review process to develop such housing, including request for zoning and other regulatory waivers.
Affordable Housing Lottery
Once approved a date will be scheduled for a lottery for the availabl homes for sale, held in conjunction with the local housing authority.
First Come First Serve
Once the lottery is conducted, if there are not enough applicants to fill the homes allotted, the development will be opened on a first come first serve basis.
Who Qualifies for MA
Affordable Housing
Lotteries
- Displaces Homemakers
- Households where at least one household member is 55 or older
- Persons within a household who have not owned a home in three years
In addition to being a “First Time Home Buyer” the buyer must meet the income and asset limits. That is, the buyers total household income cannot be too high, yet they must earn enough to meet the lenders underwriting standards. In addition, they usually require a credit score of not less than 660 as well as not exceeding the asset limit. We call this the 10% window which makes the task of finding Qualified First Time Home Buyers most difficult.
