Utah Housing Corp. aims to help 480 lower-income homebuyers

SALT LAKE CITY — The stimulus to middle-income, first-time homebuyers may have dried up, but some 480 lower-income families in Utah are being lured into purchasing their first homes via a $70 million boost from Utah Housing Corp.

The public/private agency is offering below-market mortgage funds at 4.99 percent, plus financing for all of the down payment and closing costs — a major factor for any first-time home buyer — of about $8,500.

The program will finance single homes, condominiums and twin homes, as well as houses in planned unit developments.

Corporation spokesman Sterling Thomas said Thursday in announcing the funds that the mortgage loans are not anything like the subprime mortgages that were the source of the housing bust. He said they are not adjustable-rate loans, but 30-year, fixed-rate loans with equal monthly payments. Interest and principal amounts remain the same for the life of the loan.

The agency also assures potential homebuyers that they will be in good hands, because all loans are done and serviced in Utah by Utahns — both in-person and online. The loans are never sold to out-of-state finance companies, Thomas said.

To further separate itself from any hint of the nationwide housing crisis, Utah Housing is going out of its way to point out that even when borrowers have had trouble, the delinquency and foreclosure rates are a fraction of other mortgage loans in Utah and in almost every other region of the country.

In addition, Thomas said, Utah Housing assists any borrower who happens to fall behind to investigate every possible option to keep a home from sliding into foreclosure.

Loans are obtained through a variety of lenders statewide, Thomas said, noting that a list can be found at www.utahhousingcorp.org. That is also where eligibility requirements for borrowers can be viewed, as well as price limits of homes that can be purchased under the program.

Rural homebuyers are especially encouraged to purchase homes and are being given special advantages and incentives over urban residents if they live in a designated federal government "targeted" area.

Utah Housing, which is a public corporation created by the state to promote home buying, has assisted in the purchase of more than 60,000 homes for first-time buyers, as well as 20,000 multi-family apartments, since 1977.

e-mail: jthalman@desnews.com