Carson City, NV -
January 19, 2018The
Nevada Housing Division (NHD) has helped more than 15,000 Nevadans into homes
of their own through the Home Is
Possible (HIP) program. Since the program launched in the fall of 2014,
15,162 clients have utilized the program including 892 veterans
and active military personnel through the HIP For
Heroes program; and 388 Nevada teachers in 21
Nevada communities through HIP For
Teachers.
Matt and Melissa Fitzgerald, along
with their one-year-old daughter, purchased their first house in
Southern Nevada in 2017. “We bought our home because we were tired of paying
rent for someone else’s house,” Matt said. “I’ve lived here almost my
entire life, but I’m not sure we would have been able to buy a house without
help from the Nevada Housing Division.”
The
Home Is Possible program provides bonus money of up
to five percent of the loan value for Nevada families with a household income
of less than $98,500 and a minimum credit score of 640, purchasing a
home for less than $400,000. The money, forgivable after three years, can be
used for down payment and/or closing costs and comes with an attractive 30-year
interest rate. The buyer must meet standard underwriting requirements, complete
a homebuyer education course and live in the home as their primary residence.
The
typical Nevadan benefitting from the program:
Average purchase price of home: $221,600
Average qualified income: $59,900
Average age of primary borrower: 38
“We’re very happy that we have been able to serve so many
first-time, boomerang and other buyers throughout Nevada,” said NHD
Administrator Stephen Aichroth. “And we’re thrilled that our veteran and
teacher programs are helping to make Nevada even friendlier for vets and
teachers. With the ongoing support of our partners, we’re looking forward to
helping even more Nevadans in the years to come.”
The
program is made possible through the use of a private/public partnership model,
which has funded $124 million toward down payment and
closing costs, for a total of more than $3 billion in closed mortgages since
the program was founded.
In addition to no longer paying someone else’s mortgage, Matt
shares some of the other advantages of homeownership. “We repainted the
entire house the first month we moved in. There’s so much we want to do and now
we can.”
About the Nevada Housing
Division
The
Nevada Housing Division, a division of the Department of Business and Industry,
was created by the Nevada Legislature in 1975 to solve a very real problem: a
shortage of safe and decent housing for individuals and families of low and
moderate income. For more information, visit www.homeispossiblenv.org and then
contact a HIP-qualified
lender, who will work with homebuyers to
ascertain the best options alternatives for their specific situations and then
walk them through the process.
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