By D.L. BENNETT
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Georgia’s largest local governments have all agreed to ask for federal money to create governmental house-flipping programs in hopes of propping up values in neighborhoods beset by foreclosures.

In all, Atlanta and Fulton, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Clayton and Cobb counties stand to get about $81 million in federal aid through the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. There’s a total of $153 million headed to Georgia.

The program is part of the federal government’s ongoing efforts to resolve the economic and foreclosure crisis. It allows local governments to buy problem foreclosures, fix them up and then sell or rent the properties to some of the same folks who have lost their homes during the crisis. They can also use it to create special financing to make the properties affordable.

State officials said Wednesday they doled out the state’s $77 million based on their own formula using the number of bank-owned properties in each jurisdiction as the No. 1 factor. DCA plans to give Atlanta and Fulton an additional $7.9 million to split between them. Gwinnett would get another $3 million. Cobb gets an extra $1.7 million from DCA.

Click here for the full story…