Senate Bill S1812

                                 BILL NUMBER:  S1812

 TITLE OF BILL :  An act to amend the private housing finance law, in
relation to creating the mortgage assisted population recovery program

 PURPOSE :

To provide an incentive for first-time homebuyers and potential
out-of-area homebuyers to purchase homes in counties that have
suffered population loss.

 SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS :

Section 1 amends the Private Housing Finance Law by adding a new
Section 45-d, creating the Mortgage Assisted Repopulation Program. The
Program requires the State of New York Mortgage Agency (SONYMA) to
make the mortgage and down payment incentives it offers potential
homebuyers in economically distressed areas available to potential
homebuyers in counties that have suffered population loss from the
2000 decennial census to the present.  Homebuyer eligibility includes
first-time homebuyers and potential homebuyers who have been
established residents outside the respective county for at least a
year prior to their application to the program.  A homebuyer, the
homebuyer's spouse, the homebuyer's domestic partner, or the
homebuyer's co-signatory on the mortgage or co-owner on the property
deed can take advantage of the program only once.  Qualifying counties
              

that experience 24 consecutive months of population growth will be
removed from the list of qualified counties.

Section 2 is the effective date.

 JUSTIFICATION :

Formerly industrial cities nationwide face higher residential vacancy
rates and declining populations, even as other cities are seeing
population increases.{1} With its history of industrial strength, the
situation in upstate New York reflects this trend. Upstate localities
are losing population, especially younger and working-age
residents.(2I Twenty-eight upstate counties have suffered population
loss since the 2000 decennial census, ranging from Greene County in
the Hudson Valley, which has seen a relatively small decline of .04%,
to Hamilton County in the State's North Country, which has seen a
decline of over 12% during the same period. {3} Although federal
programs exist to encourage home buying in certain federally-targeted
areas classified as distressed, {4} expanded state programs could
attract new residents to upstate cities, towns, and villages through
location-based mortgage assistance, direct state incentives for
housing and home-ownership in vacant areas, or other programs.{5}

The Mortgage Assisted Population Recovery Program seeks to address
this problem by expanding the home buying incentives that are
currently directed at distressed areas to those counties that have
experienced population loss from the 2000 decennial census to the 2014
estimated population, as determined by the U.S. Bureau of the Census.
Eligible buyers must either be first-time homebuyers or have had
established residences outside the eligible county for at least a year
prior to application to the program. The Program is designed to add
another incentive for young homebuyers to stay in the area rather than
move away, and attract both those who have moved away back to New
York.

 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :

2016: S.6287 Referred to Housing, Construction and Community
Development

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS : To be determined.

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
This act shall take effect immediately.
{1} See Vey, J., The Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy
Program, Restoring Prosperity: The State Role in Revitalizing
America's Older Industrial Cities (2007) at 25.
{2} McMahon, E.J. "The Graying of the Empire State." Empire Center.
8/16/2012; Ellis, K. "Panel examines New York's 'rural brain drain."
4/19/2011; Federal Reserve Bank of New York. "Upstate at a Glance."
December 2007.
{3} U.S. Bureau of the Census.
{4} see http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src./program
offices/housing/sfh/reo/abtrevt (describing the FHA Revitalization
Area Sales Programs); currently many New York State mortgage
incentives incorporate definitions from these federal programs. See,
e.g.,
http://www.nyshcr.org/topics/home/purchasingahomeinatargetarea.htm.
{5} For example, Maryland has initiated a variety of mortgage
incentives, grants and other assistance to attract new residents and
homebuying throughout Baltimore. See
http:/livebaltimore.com/financial- incentives/.