<body><div><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2QNPAQ_1AbCE02600" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2QNPAQ_1AbCE02600" width="1200" height="600" >JOHNSON COUNTY, Iowa (KCRG) - A new program is helping first-time homebuyers in Eastern Iowa with one of the hardest parts of buying a new home: the down payment.East Central Iowa Council of Governments and three local trust fund agencies partnered to apply for HOME Investment Partnerships Program funds from the Iowa Finance Authority. They were awarded the funds and created the First Time Homebuyer Down Payment Assistance Program.“Oftentimes, they’re young professionals, they’re working, they have income that can help them to sustain a mortgage payment, but it’s having that savings accumulated to buy the home and put down that down payment that’s really the issue,” said Paula Mitchell, East Central Iowa Council of Governments housing director.Qualifying applicants can receive up to $35,000 of a forgivable loan to help with a down payment. “This program helps people who may be able to afford a mortgage but just don’t have access to the savings to be able to put down their down payment,” Mitchell said.Over two years, the program will help 15 low-to-middle-income first-time homeowners across E-CCOG’s six-county region.That’s Johnson, Iowa, Benton, Jones and Washington counties. However, Mitchell said the program has retention requirements. “There’s a retention period that they need to agree to abide by. And depending on the amount of assistance that they receive, it ranges from 5 to 10 years. But assuming they remain in the home and occupied as their primary residence for that period of time, it’s fully forgiven at the end,” Mitchell said.Megan Flewellyn with the Iowa City Area Association of Realtors said they’ve been seeing the average age of first-time homeowners go up over the past few years.She said last year the average age was around 40 years old, compared to 28 before that.“They’re also working against inflation, rising economic costs. They are paying for student loans. They are paying higher rental prices. So even if they’re taking more time to save up that down payment, they have a lot of factors working against them,” said Flewellyn, CEO of the Iowa City Area Association of Realtors.Flewellyn said programs like this one level the playing field. “And they’re competing with repeat buyers, all cash buyers that have that equity naturally built in, right? So anytime that we can create a new program or kind of address the gap to provide those down payment assistance is amazing,” she said.For more information on requirements and to apply for funds, click here. </div></body>

Block Source: KCRG.com

Misinformation

Clickbait

Old or repetitive news

Explicit content

Location not relevant

JOHNSON COUNTY, Iowa (KCRG) - A new program is helping first-time homebuyers in Eastern Iowa with one of the hardest parts of buying a new home: the down payment. East Central Iowa Council of Governments and three local trust fund agencies partnered to apply for HOME Investment Partnerships Program funds from the Iowa Finance Authority. They were awarded the funds and created the First Time Homebuyer Down Payment Assistance Program.

New program helps with down payments for first time homebuyers

NewsBreak

JOHNSON COUNTY, Iowa (KCRG) - A new program is helping first-time homebuyers in Eastern Iowa with one of the hardest parts of buying a new home: the down p

New program helps with down payments for first time homebuyers

Comments