Center’s homebuyer education course overhaul benefitting from industry as well as consumer input.

As readers may be aware, the Minnesota Homeownership Center created and maintains the Home Stretch® homebuyer education course curriculum. The course meets the National Industry Standards for Homeownership Education and Counseling, and is required by lenders as part of the application process for certain types of mortgage loans. As part of the course maintenance process, Home Stretch is updated periodically to ensure it remains as relevant as possible to all prospective homebuyers. We are in the midst of a major revamp of the course at present, with rollout of the updated course expected to begin in April 2023.

Over the last several months, Center staff have been working with a committee of Home Stretch educators, prospective consumers and other volunteers to revise and improve the course. Our goal is to maintain a best-in-class homebuyer education experience. We want to tell the full story homeownership, including its history of racism, its wealth-building and stabilizing impact today, and the opportunities for all of us facilitated by equitable access to owning one’s own home.

As part of this latest Home Stretch update, we will be moving to an online course manual rather than today’s printed manual. This is being done in large-part due to consumer feedback. In July of this year, we previewed a prototype of the online course manual to several past Home Stretch participants. The feedback was great! Consumers noted that the platform was clearly organized, easy to use, and less overwhelming than the printed manual.

As rollout of the updated course gets closer, we will be providing training to course educators and piloting the new course with a few of our Network partners. Stay tuned for further developments!