Through the program, which provides eligible customers with a 3.5% down payment, the agency is able to offer up to 100% financing by giving a traditional first mortgage, normally through an FHA loan.
“It allows many homeowners to breakdown that barrier to entry, due to not having down-payment money, and it gets them into their initial home,” Tribuna explained, pointing out with no small amount of pride that they had recently funded the 30,000th loan.
But making loans more readily accessible for the low paid is only one piece of the housing puzzle, he agreed. “I think (the key) is adding more inventory, and that’s part of our entire program.”
He said the partnership was working hard to ensure nonprofit homebuilders had more liquidity to build more homes, but he recognized it will require a Herculean effort to get everyone on board, given current real estate prices, as well as the rising cost of labor and home building supplies.
“If you’re a home builder and you can build a $500,000 home you can make a 10% or 20% profit margin, so why would you focus on building a $150,000 home where the profit margin is much lower? There’s not a focus on incentivizing homebuilders to construct in this segment,” he stressed.