Twenty-two new homeowners and 171 homebuyers shopping as of July 31.
As you are likely aware as a follower of our work, the First-Generation Homebuyers Community Down Payment Assistance Fund officially opened for business on June 4. Since then, staff at MMCDC (the fund administrator) and program partner lenders have been hard at work processing applications and reserving funds for prospective first-generation homebuyers from across the state. As anticipated, applications were temporarily paused in August in order to process a backlog of submissions. Applications are now once again being accepted, and funds remain plentiful.
The Center continues to execute all program outreach and data sharing, and we were pleased to post initial data on the program website earlier this week. Initial statistics from program opening through July 31 are as follow:
- 94 percent of total program funds available remain unspent;
- 171 prospective homebuyers are currently shopping with DPA funds reserved for them;
- 22 home sales transactions have closed – which means there are 22 new first-generation homeowners who have benefitted from the program!
- Among the new first-generation homeowners, 77 percent are Black, Indigenous or People of Color (BIPOC).
These data points are posted on the program website under the Community Impact tab, and we look forward to updating this data each month. We’ll also be releasing more in-depth quarterly data snapshots starting in October. These updates will include statistics such as average DPA loan amount, average home purchase price, average household income and the Metro vs. Greater Minnesota home purchase split.
Many thanks to our professional colleagues across the state for working with all of us to get this program off to a strong start! Here are two key program reminders to ensure success:
- Buyers are required to have a fully underwritten conditional pre-approval to apply for the funds. Desktop Underwriting is not accepted.
- Buyers should not start shopping for a home until they have been approved and issued a Fund Reservation Letter.
More information on how the Fund works, including a short video tutorial, is available here.