SPRING HILL - After spending much of the summer leading a property tax revolt, Blaise Ingoglia is now focusing his efforts to make living in Hernando County more affordable through his primary business - Hartland Homes.

Ingoglia has begun marketing an affordable homes initiative with a twist: It would give priority to teachers, police officers and sheriff's deputies. The goal, he said, is to give people in the public service sector a better chance to own a home.

The initiative will cut new homeowners' monthly mortgage payments by as much as 40 percent, according to Ingoglia's literature and Web site at hartlandaffordablehomes.com.

The program offers such enticing attributes as "little or no down payment and instant equity."

"There is definitely a need for affordable housing in this county. It's probably reaching crisis levels right now," Ingoglia said.

By his estimates, half the households in Hernando County cannot afford a home valued at $127,000; current housing prices on average are tens of thousands of dollars above that level.

Ingoglia's solution is to build homes and to offer financing that would include a first mortgage equal to the cost of building the home or slightly less. A second mortgage would also be recorded to represent the difference between the cost and the contract price.

No interest would be charged on that second mortgage and no monthly payments required. Instead, that second mortgage would be a 10-year balloon payment due in 10 years or whenever the homeowner sells the home, whichever comes first.

"We're building these houses at a very reduced cost to the end buyer but we're not sacrificing quality," he said.

Ingoglia is offering the program in Hernando, Citrus and Marion counties. In Hernando, he is marketing the homes in Spring Hill and Royal Highlands.

He has pledged $1.76-million in each of the three counties, limiting the number of applications that can be accepted, although he said he would not turn away teachers and law enforcement officers.

There are no income limitations to apply for the program. Hartland Homes will also work with those whose incomes qualify them for the state's down-payment-assistance program to further reduce their mortgage payment.

The actual affordability of the program or any alternative mortgage program is something a potential home buyer needs to fully explore, according to Stan Fitterman, senior technical adviser for the Florida Housing Coalition.

The key in a system like the Hartland Homes initiative is that the home buyers have all the details up front about the true overall cost of the home and the interest rate on the mortgage.

They should also be sure to understand their own risk if the cannot pay off the balloon at the end of the term or find a way to refinance the debt, Fitterman said.

"These alternative mortgages have gotten kind of a bad reputation," he said. "It comes down to whether people are in a position in 10 years to pay off that balloon."

One risk with a balloon mortgage is that a family's income level might change. They could lose a job or change jobs. If they get too far into debt, it might be difficult to repay the balloon mortgage when it comes due.

"Anyone who is getting into a loan like this which is not traditional, they need an attorney to explain to them the risk," Fitterman said.

While Hartland Homes has been doing business in this area for several years, the company's focus has been different in the past. Hartland has attracted investors to provide up-front money to build homes through Hartland.

Those investors then realize a profit between the actual cost of building and the market price when they sell the property.

But Ingoglia said he is no longer doing that program in Hernando County because the numbers no longer work out here.

While he has not had a high profile marketing his homes before, Ingoglia got plenty of attention this summer as the frontman for the Government Gone Wild seminars. Those seminars helped bring hundreds of Hernando citizens to public budget hearings to urge county commissioners to reduce property tax rates.

He has also ratcheted up his political activism, urging voters to replace incumbent commissioners next year while financially backing candidates running against the incumbents.

Like the Government Gone Wild movement, Ingoglia sees the new affordable housing program as a service he is providing.

"We feel we're filling a need in this community," he said. "We're investing in the future of this community."

Barbara Behrendt can be reached at behrendt@sptimes.com or 352 848-1434.