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June was National Homeownership Month, and it reminds us to let our
members know that the Arizona Association of REALTORS® (AAR) is
committed more than ever to providing opportunities for Arizona’s
working families to become homeowners in today’s housing market.
Homeownership is the dream of most every American. Owning a home is the
primary way families can build equity wealth for their future. The
benefits of homeownership go even further, impacting entire communities.
Neighborhoods that consist predominantly of homeowners tend to thrive.
Such neighborhoods can offer a safer, healthier life for families and
are more likely to result in greater wealth creation for families that
reside there.
However, not all working families can afford to buy a home. In December
2004, the median price for a resale home in Arizona was $190,000, up 22
percent from 2003. At the same time, the median price for a new home was
$211,640, up 19 percent.
What does this mean for Arizona’s average worker? A dental technician
making $22,000 a year, for example, can qualify for a mortgage of
roughly $70,000. That’s not nearly enough to purchase a home in our
rising-cost market. To qualify for a $200,000 mortgage, a borrower must
make more than $65,000. Yet the median household income in Arizona is
only $40,558. Simply put, working families are seeing the doors to
homeownership close on them.
One way we can help open those doors is by encouraging employers across
the state to offer housing assistance to their employees. The AAR is
doing just that by offering $5,000 in downpayment and closing cost
assistance to our own employees. Plus, AAR is the first state REALTOR®
association in the nation to offer this assistance — Employer-Assisted
Housing (EAH) — to employees of local associations in addition to our
own. Funded by the Arizona REALTORS® Housing Needs Foundation, this
critical financial assistance can help office staff afford to buy their
first home.
This statewide effort by local businesses, the AAR, lenders and Fannie
Mae is called the Housing Arizona’s Workforce (HAW) initiative. HAW aims
to increase homeownership among workforce families by encouraging area
employers to offer homeownership education and financial assistance to
their employees, and seeks low-cost financing options from participating
lenders for these borrowers. As part of the HAW initiative, AAR is
training our members in a step-by-step process for working with
employers, lenders and Fannie Mae to conduct home-buying workshops with
employers.
This strategy, of encouraging employers to offer housing assistance to
their employees, can be a win-win for everyone. EAH benefits serve as a
valuable recruitment and retention tool for employers. For the
employees, it can help them overcome the two largest barriers to
homeownership: understanding the home-buying process and obtaining funds
for the downpayment. Employer-Assisted Housing plans can vary based on
business and housing needs that range from home-buying workshops to
financial benefits, offering a loan or grant to help fund downpayments,
closing costs or interest rate buy-downs.
AAR is committed to helping our members understand the importance of
working families achieving the American dream of homeownership, and to
finding innovative ways REALTORS® and local employers can help them
reach this goal. AAR, ARHNF and the Housing Arizona’s Workforce partners
are working together to make sure every Arizonan who wants to own a home
and can handle the mortgage payments should have that opportunity. No
one should be overlooked, underserved or overcharged in their pursuit of
the American dream.
For details on Housing Arizona’s Workforce, see
www.aarhnf.com/HAW/. For
information on other available housing programs, see the Arizona
REALTORS® Housing Needs Foundation website, www.aarhnf.com.
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