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About a year after receiving a $3.5 million award from the feds to buy and flip foreclosed homes, Community Housing Improvement Systems and Planning Association is putting its first three rehabbed properties on the market, with interest lists opening Oct. 24.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development 's stimulus initiative, the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, is designed to restore well-maintained, inhabited homes to areas hit hard by high rates of foreclosure. CHISPA, a Salinas nonprofit, hopes to sell about 30 homes to low- and moderate-income families over about three years; they've purchased 15 so far, and under the grant rules, will use income from each sale to reinvest in the program.

The three homes for sale are located in Salinas, Soledad and Gonzales, and are listed for $160-178,000.

"Our goal is not to just go spend the money," says Dana Cleary, CHISPA's director of real estate development. "Our goal is to find the homes that are in bad shape and will benefit from us purchasing them. We make a point to purchase homes that the average person might not want to take on."

Photo courtesy hmclaird via Flickr Creative Commons.