Quality Homes
at affordable prices
Historic Saint Augustine, Florida

Do you qualify to sail into a new home?

What is SHIP?

SHIP is a state program that provides up to $30,000 in down payment and closing cost assistance when you buy a newly constructed house that falls within the price limits set by the state.

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That includes the houses advertised here.

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Low-income house-holds can get up to $20,000 and very low-income house-holds can get up to $30,000.

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Contact:
Dana Moore, SHIP Administrator for St. Johns County
102 M.L. King Ave
Suite B
St. Augustine 32084 Ph: (904) 827-6895 Fax: (904) 823-2482 Email:
ship@co.st-johns.fl.us

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Quality Homes Now Available at Great Prices
Click here for more details

Saint Augustine is a great place to live, work, vacation, and visit. And there's no reason for high prices to limit your fun. St. Augustine today id a bargain. You can buy a brand new, quality-built, two or three bedroom home for under $130,000 less than two miles from the scenic heart of the most historic town in America and the spectacular waterfront that Sir Francis Drake visited in 1586. .

Even with interest rates around 7%, buying a home often works out cheaper than renting, with the added beneift of steadily increasing equity as the mortgage is paid, and the potential for capital appreciation as house prices rise. Perhaps the two biggest obstacles to buying a home are the purchase price and the down payment. Help with the latter is available thanks to Florida Housing’s First Time Homebuyer Program. You may qualify for $25,000 or more in down payment assistance (depending on income, number of dependents, and other factors). Click here to get the details.

Tackling the purchase price of new homes is tough because they are larger determined by market conditions. These conditions include demand for homes and costs paid by home builders for material, labor, and land. In general, there is a greater profit margin to be made building larger homes in higher price brackets. So, because they are first and foremost business people, most builders do not set out to build homes at the lower end of the price range for a given area. There are exceptions. A few builders pride themselves on their ability to create quality homes at an affordable price. An example are the homes built by New Augustine construction on Cooper Street, a quiet cul-de-sac less than two miles from downtown Saint Augustine.

One place to go for local information about help with buying a home is the St. John's County Affordable Housing web site. Here you will find links to affordable subdivisions, builders who specialize in affordable homes, credit resources, credit reports, the Future Home Buyers Newsletter, lenders, and mortgage resources.

The Florida Housing Coalition is another web site worth visiting. Unfortunately, navigating the site is not intuitive, but you should find the right pages if you select "Looking for Housing" after you click this link.