What's New?

Home Buyers Fair: September 6 in Madison

Learn how to become a home owner. Earn a Home Buyer Education Certificate in one day. Win $3,000 to put toward your down payment. The Home Buyers Fair is for anyone planning to buy a home, especially first-time home buyers. Download details.

Good Tax News for Madison Homeowners

People who purchased homes in the City of Madison with the help of Movin' Out down payment assistance will see a change in their property tax assessment when they receive the annual post card from the tax assessor in mid-April. The assessed value is likely to be less. The result will be that property tax owed in 2008 will be less.

In prior years, the homes owned by Movin' Out property owners were assessed based on the fair market value of homes in the same geographic area. As a result of discussions with Movin' Out, the City of Madison agreed to place the homes of Movin' Out home owners in a separate category. Download Assessor letter (41kb pdf). Homes in this category have now been assessed based on the gradual increase in Social Security cost of living adjustments (COLA). Download details on COLA (42kb pdf). The tax assessor has re-calculated tax-assessed value by taking the original purchase price and multiplying it by the annual COLA for each year of home ownership. The April post card and the 2008 tax bill will reflect this new calculation.

This change will make the most difference for Movin' Out home owners who purchased several years ago and will make less difference for recent home buyers. For example, a man who purchased a condo in 2000 will see the tax-assessed value decrease from $90,000 to $68,000. This will save $432 on this year’s tax bill. His house payment will decrease by $36 a month because he won’t have to escrow so much for his tax bill.

In general, the fair market value of housing in Madison has increased by about 63% in the last decade. Social Security COLA has increased by about 29%.

With housing values in flux, what would happen if fair market value was less than the value derived from applying the COLA formula? The tax assessor said, for Movin' Out home owners, the tax-assessed value will always be the lesser of fair market or Social Security COLA calculation.

Madison Movin' Out home owners who have questions about their new property tax assessment can call the City of Madison tax assessor at 266-4531 for more explanation. You can also always call us here at Movin' Out, 251-4446 x 7.

Make sure you receive your IRS Stimulus Payment

Most households in America will receive economic stimulus payments as early as May. The checks can be spent for anything or saved for a future goal—home owners can use this to pay a household expense or catch up on mortgage or taxes. Home buyers can put the stimulus check toward a down payment. You must file a tax form to get the check. To make sure your household gets its stimulus check, view our step by step instructions (177kb pdf) and view our frequently asked questions document (42kb pdf) for further information. To get information on free tax preparation, visit: http://www.revenue.wi.gov/faqs/pcs/vita.html.

Dave Porterfield Joins Movin' Out

Movin' Out stepped up its capacity to develop affordable housing for low-income people with disabilities by creating a new housing development position and hiring Dave Porterfield to fill it. Dave will head up Movin' Out activities to expand its stock of rental housing throughout Wisconsin . He will also manage the portfolio of rental properties Movin' Out owns through our merger with WISH, Inc. Dave’s ties to Movin' Out go back to our origin—he was instrumental in guiding the pioneering parents who founded Movin' Out to crystallize an innovative approach to sustainable housing for people with disabilities, helping them to organize Movin' Out as a non-profit, establishing its role as a Community Housing Development Organization, and securing its initial funding. As development planning director at Wisconsin Partnership for Housing Development, Dave recruited Movin' Out as a partner when he led the development of the successful mixed income housing projects, Coachyard Square and The Uplands.

Movin' Out and WISH merge

Movin' Out and WISH, Inc formally joined forces by merging in October. The result is one, strong organization with the capacity to provide a range of housing options for people with disabilities. The merged organization retains the Movin' Out name. Movin' Out provides information, comprehensive housing counseling, and resources to assist people with disabilities and their families to achieve their own best housing solution from a range of options. In addition to helping people with disabilities to purchase and maintain their own homes, Movin' Out now owns rental properties that it reserves for people with disabilities who receive long-term support services administered by local human service agencies. Movin' Out also manages the WISH housing trust.

Madison Community Foundation

The Madison Community Foundation awarded Movin' Out $60,000 to make the most of its recent merger with WISH, Inc. by targeting grant resources to strengthen and integrate the WISH programs into Movin' Out, thus enhancing Movin' Out’s capacity to provide a broad range of information and assistance to people with disabilities seeking stable and affordable housing. Madison Community Foundation encourages, facilitates and manages long-term philanthropy. By granting funds to Movin' Out, the foundation continues its commitment to build community in Dane County.

Fair Housing for People with Disabilities

Right here, starting at this web site, people with disabilities and their allies can learn more about fair housing laws that apply to them and disability-related protections such as the ADA. The world wide web contains vast information on these topics. Movin’ Out social work intern Ben Schifski has chosen some of the most helpful links that apply to housing and people with disabilities. Visit our new Links page to find safe web sites with lots of information.

Deep Subsidies for Purchasing in Madison and Dane County Now Available

With the funding support of our partners, Dane County and the City of Madison, Movin' Out can leverage significantly more down payment assistance for qualified households than in previous years. With the price of housing on the rise in Madison and Dane County, a deeper subsidy is often needed to achieve affordable home ownership. See some scenarios (28 kb pdf) and contact Movin' Out for more information.

Movin' Out Board Adopts a 3-Year Strategic Plan

Movin’ Out strives to be the premier source of community-integrated housing solutions for people with disabilities in Wisconsin, according to the vision statement adopted by the Movin' Out board in its strategic plan. See plan (39 kb pdf).

Sue's Story

Sue Helgesen’s dream of home ownership was realized in 2005. She has given Movin' Out permission to share her success story of purchasing her own two-bedroom condo. While each Movin' Out story is one of a kind, Sue hopes her experience will encourage others to pursue their dream too. Since 1997, Movin' Out has helped more than 700 people with disabilities purchase homes and/or obtain resources to make them more livable, accessible and/or improve safety. Sue contacted Movin' Out and there, a housing counselor helped her transform her dream into a housing plan. The first step: save money for a down payment. Sue saved. When she had as much as her SSI and Medicaid benefits would allow her to have in assets, she had to find a way to keep saving without putting her income in jeopardy.

Movin Out helped her get in touch with an attorney who helped Sue and her family set up a trust for Sue’s savings that maintained her eligibility for SSI and Medicaid. Sue saved for three years before taking the next step in her plan which was to talk with her Movin’ Out counselor, Michelle, and a mortgage lender about all the details of qualifying for a mortgage and finding a place she could afford to stay in over the long term.

Sue’s income qualified her for three down payment assistance programs but even with these three different loans, the numbers weren’t working until Sue worked with the city of Madison to exchange her Section 8 rent voucher for a Section 8 voucher that would help offset her monthly mortgage payments. She found a condo on the east side of Madison. The layout was perfect. The neighborhood was friendly and safe. It was on a bus line and close to shopping. And Sue could afford to buy it. Michelle helped Sue write up an offer to purchase. The seller accepted the offer. At the closing, Sue signed her name on “a hundred papers and handed over her stack of down payment checks.” She was a home owner. She left with the keys to her new condo.

Sue says the first step toward your dream of home ownership is to get information and learn what it means to own your own home. Owning her own home works for Sue but might not be the right answer for everybody. One good place to begin is by contacting Movin’ Out. Call (608) 251-4446 or call toll free (877) 861-6746.

Developing New Housing

Coachyard Square is an example of Movin' Out’s participation in the development of new housing that includes affordable home ownership options for people with disabilities. Movin' Out partnered with Wisconsin Partnership for Housing Development to create a 23-unit mixed income condo development.

back to top