OUR VIEW: Fairfax plan may not fit our housing needs

Staff Editorial
Published: July 21, 2008

» SUMMARY: Culpeper officials should keep an eye on Fairfax County’s foreclosure experiment, but not rush to copy the bold new plan.

North of Culpeper there’s an interesting plan in place to help stem the tide of our national housing crisis.

Officials in Fairfax brought forward the idea of purchasing foreclosed homes. Fairfax County plans to purchase up to 200 such homes to resell to first-time homebuyers— with incomes up to $75,000 — at a reduced cost.

It’s an interesting way to use $10 million of taxpayers’ money that may help Fairfax, which reported 3,500 foreclosures in the first three months of 2008, improve its housing market.

Opponents say the actual number of foreclosures in Fairfax is closer to 2,000 and the crisis doesn’t require a government program.

Culpeper, which saw 187 foreclosures in the first six months of the year, should take a wait-and-see approach before duplicating the plan here.

At present, our officials aren’t looking into duplicating the Fairfax plan and have the relative luxury of observing the results before hastily playing copycat.

The “Washington Post” reported that there are no reliable statistics to show how long the foreclosed properties in Fairfax stay on the market.

It seems unclear whether the county’s plan will actually help the market or drive down property values in so-called “foreclosure clusters.”

While we recognize the rising rate of foreclosures in Culpeper is a tremendous concern, the per capita foreclosure rate in Fairfax is roughly twice that of Culpeper, putting the suburban county in more dire straits.