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GREENSBORO - Local leaders of Habitat for Humanity want to take their homeownership program in a fresh direction - buying and rehabbing foreclosed houses for sale to lower-income people at affordable prices.

Habitat of Greater Greensboro is one of 44 applicants across North Carolina for a new program that aims to stabilize neighborhoods shaken by foreclosure and other travails.

The local Habitat wants $2.1 million to buy and spruce up repossessed houses through the state Division of Community Assistance, which is administering the program in North Carolina, said Lisa Reynolds, the local group's assistant director.

The local group has restored existing houses in the past, but its primary emphasis is new construction, Reynolds said.

"This venture on such a scale would be a brand new concept," she said, adding that Habitat plans to keep building new homes as part of its arsenal against substandard housing.

The group was reluctant to give details of its proposal because officials in Raleigh have not announced which applicants will receive how much. There's a possibility the Greensboro group could receive only a fraction of its request or nothing at all.

But Habitat branches in other parts of the nation have turned successfully to the foreclosure market as their regional economies sputtered and home foreclosures became more frequent.

"It's worked out very well for us," said the Rev. Lisa Lefkow, vice president of development for Habitat of Collier County, Fla. "We have a very high percentage of foreclosed housing in our area."

Lefkow's program bought 26 foreclosed houses in the program it started last summer. So far, it has successfully rehabbed and resold six of the homes, she said.

Rescuing foreclosed houses can provide multiple benefits for everybody concerned, said Lefkow and other Habitat officials familiar with the new trend.

The family that buys the property usually ends up with more space on a bigger lot than is possible in a new Habitat home, Lefkow said.

And working with an existing house is cost-effective for the nonprofit, said Denise Paquette, executive director of Habitat of Lansing, Mich.

"We're typically able to rehab for less than half the cost of a new home," Paquette said of her group's program that started in July. "That means we can help more people."

And saving houses from extended vacancy can preserve the viability of a lower-income neighborhood that otherwise might be pockmarked by foreclosures, said Ron Cramer, director of Habitat of Frederick County, Md.

"This is basically a sign of the times. We have a gigantic number of foreclosed-on houses sitting vacant," said Cramer, whose group is part of a public-private partnership seeking federal money to start a foreclosed-housing program in Maryland.

Foreclosures are not rampant in the Triad and have actually decreased recently, said Don Jud, professor emeritus of UNCG's Bryan School of Business and Economics.

In fact, the 230 foreclosures in Guilford County last month were 32 percent less than during January 2008, he said.

"But that doesn't necessarily reflect favorably on the real estate market," he said, noting that the decline might stem more from lenders working with financially troubled homeowners instead of foreclosing.

If Habitat of Greensboro succeeds in the grant request, other elements of its program would remain the same for people buying a rehabbed home through the nonprofit, assistant director Reynolds said.

Would-be home buyers would still have to qualify as a lower-income family. And they would have to contribute 300 to 500 hours of "sweat equity" working on their own home or another Habitat project.

State government has $52 million to distribute in 22 counties through the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, said Deborah Barnes of the N.C. Department of Commerce that includes the community-assistance office.

Five counties in the Triad are eligible for the grant money Congress approved last summer in the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, including Guilford, Alamance, Davidson, Forsyth and Randolph.

Reynolds said local Habitat officials hope to hear as early as this week on their $2.1 million application.

"We're very hopeful," she said. "We think we've put together a very compelling application."

Contact Taft Wireback at 373-7100 or taft.wireback@news-record.com