Affluent Montgomery County just outside our Nation’s Capital has an interesting plan for foreclosed homes. The County is in the process of acquiring some of its inventory of foreclosed homes and rent those homes back to county residents.

The announcement of the plan came on March 25th shortly after the US Department of Housing & Urban Development sent more than $4 million of taxpayer money to the county government.

The current plan calls for roughly 6 homes to be purchased in two local towns where the cost to buy and renovate each shall not exceed $300,000 per property. Then the homes will be rented out to residents who earn 50 percent of the county’s average income. The rents for the homes have yet-to-be determined.

Currently in Montgomery County the average income is about $96,000 per household, and the average cost of a single-family home is about $485,000, according to 2007 data from Parks and Planning Commission data.