Oregon Public Broadcasting

The federal government is taking more steps to try to help cities clear the backlog of foreclosed properties within their boundaries.

Under the country's Neighborhood Stabilization Program, boundaries were drawn around the nation's cities.

People could get help buying foreclosed homes inside those boundaries, but not outside.

In Gresham for example, that meant there were only 18 foreclosed homes available.

Now, Gresham spokeswoman Laura Shepherd says the feds have expanded their boundaries and 80 homes are available.

Laura Shepherd: "We were disappointed at the limited number of census tracts that were included in the initial program. So when we heard that they were going to include so many more, we were just very excited."

The city has also doubled the amount of money it's willing to lend.

Now some people qualify for as much as a $25,000 loan at zero percent interest.

But buyers have to act quickly: June 1st is the deadline for cities to spend all their  Neighborhood Stabilization funds.