Hope for Homeowners

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Story Published: Dec 1, 2008 at 6:37 PM PDT

By Melissa Wagner

If you don't want to get in over your head like so many others there's someone here to help. "All the families have done well, no defaults, delinquencies at all and it looks like that project has produced some pretty good home buyers." Which is unusual in a market that has gone sour, with more fore-closures nationwide than ever before.
New Life Homes is a self-help housing program that started in Mabton, but is expanding to Sunnyside. It offers low income families the chance to own a home. but first teaches you how to keep it. "We do credit counseling first, then go into budgeting and then pre purchase counseling. It's a step by step process to purchase a home. We also do foreclosure prevention where we teach them how to stay in their house, budgeting is important." And the best part -- it's free. There are several state and hud funds that Catholic Charities Housing Services uses to get people into a house. Some offer a sliding interest scale with big benefits. "So as the family is able to afford, you can slide their interest scale down to actually one percent to make it more affordable." And in turn, keep more families from losing their homes when the economy takes a dive. Analysts say home prices could drop by a quarter over the next couple years. Which is why CCHS says educating first time home buyers is key to stopping off fore-closures in our area. They do offer these courses to everyone, and urge families to take advantage of them. Just contact Catholic Charities Housing Services to find out when they'll offer their next housing seminar.

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