Affordable Housing in Orange County

The L.A. Times reports:

n Orange County's pricey housing market, even some winners of a recent affordable-housing lottery were too cash-poor to take advantage of their luck and buy a house — a situation one advocate called "ludicrous."

Of 700 applicants, 143 winners in the development's first phase were called in late September to make sure they financially qualify to buy low-cost homes being built on the former Marine Corps Air Station site in Tustin.


At least a handful of winners found they didn't have enough money to make required down payments on the properties, which were priced between $55,100 to $311,400, a fraction of the market prices.

Those units were advertised by Lennar Corp. and William Lyon Homes with the words "3% down payment required." But some buyers found that the down payments were nearly 50% of the purchase price.

The wacky world of socialist planning.