Below Market Rate (BMR)
Administered by East Palo Alto Community Alliance & Neighborhood Development Organization (EPACANDO)
Our mission is to create affordable housing and to promote community and economic development in the City of East Palo Alto. We accomplish our mission by building and maintaining affordable housing.
Services
The program aims to assist those who are priced out of the competitive housing market, ensuring diversity and inclusivity within communities. It regulates the price of the BMR units to ensure affordability.
The program was developed in response to “inclusionary zoning” ordinances prevalent in various jurisdictions, which require developers of new residential projects above a specific size to sell a percentage of the units at below-market rates.
Housing Option
The City of East Palo Alto is committed to providing affordable housing options. The Below Market Rate (BMR) Program is designed to increase the availability of affordable housing options for low- to moderate-income households. It helps first-time homebuyers with low, moderate, and middle incomes by offering specified units sold at below-market-rate prices. These homes are also resold at below market-rate prices to future eligible buyers.
Portfolio Retention
Assuring the soundness of the city’s portfolio of BMR homes for current and future residents is in everyone’s best interest. Annually, EPACANDO reaches out to all BMR homeowners to ensure compliance with the program’s basic rules on remodeling, refinancing, and renting.
Organizational Partners
EPACANDO works closely with city staff. EPACANDO also collaborates with Bay Area Affordable Homeownership Alliance (BAAHA), an experienced BMR technical consultant coordinating BMR refinances, and resales.
BELOW MARKET RATE (BMR) HOMEOWNERSHIP
Purchasing and Owning
Below Market Rate (BMR) condominiums and single-family homes are located throughout the community and listed for resale as they become available.
The city utilizes a lottery system and maintains a notification list to select eligible applicants. Only those who meet the eligibility criteria can be on the title and mortgage. A new lottery pool of eligible buyers is created as units become available.
More than 53 East Palo Alto families own BMR homes, made possible by the city’s inclusionary zoning ordinance, which for decades has required developers of new for-sale housing to sell some of them at more affordable prices and which then keeps those homes affordable over time by restricting their resale price.