Olney Springs​

Olney Springs Workforce Housing Owners

Requirements While Owning Your Workforce Housing (WFH) Home

Your WFH home at Olney Springs has a legally enforceable control period of 20 years from the date that you purchased the property.  

During the 20-year control period:

  • You must occupy the WFH home as your primary residence and you cannot rent out the home

  • You must sell your WFH home if you no longer wish to live in the home or before you purchase other residential property in the Washington, DC Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area.

  • Your WFH home does not have a fair market value during the control period. If you plan to refinance your home, you must contact the WFH office.  Refinancing the property must not result in reducing the equity below $10,000

  • A WFH home cannot be sold for more than the maximum resale price as calculated by the WFH office.

How the Maximum Resale Price is Calculated for an Olney Springs WFH Home

The maximum resale price is calculated as follows

Formula

Example if sold after owning 5 years

Original Base Price

+ 2.6% yearly percentage CPI*

+ Options selected by purchaser

+ Allowable capital improvements

    Maximum Resale Price

Original Base Price                             $300,000

+ 2.6% x 5 yrs = 13% x $300,000 =     $39,000

+ Options selected by purchaser    =     $20,000

+ Allowable capital improvements =      $1,000

           Maximum Resale Price            $360,000

* Yearly percentage increase equal to 10-year average percent change in CPI-U as calculated from date of purchase

Refinancing Your Olney Springs WFH Home

If you are planning to refinance your Olney Springs Workforce Housing home, you must first submit a written request for the current maximum control period resale price to present to your lender. 

The refinancing must not result in reducing the owner’s equity below $10,000.

Submit your request for the resale price by e-mail to WFH Intake, by fax to 240-777-3691, or by mail to WFH Program, Department of Housing and Community Affairs, 1401 Rockville Pike, 4th Floor; Rockville, Maryland 20852.

Your request must include the following:

  • your name, email, and telephone number

  • an itemized list of any allowable capital improvements you have made to your home using the form attached

  • invoices and receipt for any capital improvements you are seeking to include in the resale price

By law, the WFH office has twenty-one days to respond to your request; however, we will make every effort to honor your request within ten days of receipt.

Selling Your Olney Springs WFH unit

If you would like to sell your Olney Springs WFH home, you must first submit a written request for the current maximum control period resale price by e-mail to WFH Intake, by fax to 240-777-3691, or by mail to WFH Program, Department of Housing and Community Affairs, 1401 Rockville Pike, 4th Floor; Rockville, Maryland 20852.

You must include the following information with your request:

  • your name, email, and telephone number

  • an itemized list of any allowable capital improvements you have made to your home

  • invoices and receipt for any capital improvements you are seeking to include in the resale price

Once the resale price has been determined, the County will decide whether or not it wishes to exercise its right-of-first-refusal to purchase the WFH unit. At this time, Montgomery County is not purchasing resale Workforce Housing Units. If the County decides to purchase WFH unit, which is not likely, a representative of the county discuss the purchase process.

When the County decides not to purchase your unit, it must be resold to another income eligible household.  You may use a licensed real estate agent to help with this process. However, the owner must obtain written permission from DHCA prior to signing a listing agreement with a real estate agent, in order to include this expense in the resale pricing.

The real estate agent must contact the WFH Office to receive instructions on how to market and sell the WFH Unit.  If a licensed real estate agent is used, the actual real estate commission, not to exceed 6%, may be added to the resale price.