As mortgage rates and demand become major barriers for potential home buyers trying to find a home in the competitive North Texas housing market, Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity Nonprofits are launching new benefits to help employees that could also help compete for top talent.
“At Habitat, we had to ask ourselves, “You know, our teammates are the people we strive to serve,'' said Blaine Cowart, Dallas Area Habitat's vice president of homeowner services. We put so much effort into serving the communities we live in, but what can we do to reinvest in our own people?” For humanity.
Cowart says the answer was to establish a new housing assistance program as an employee benefit. They named it the “Welcome Home Program.” The nonprofit will use a $9 million gift from MacKenzie Bezos to provide employees who meet income requirements with down payment assistance and up to $13,000 in closing costs in the form of forgivable loans over five years. He explained that he would provide it.
“Housing is the foundation for so many other outcomes in our lives. That’s why employers like Habitat invest in their employees to ensure that their employees not only have access to affordable housing, but also to the workplace. “Having access to nearby housing would reduce the cost of their commute time and stress,” Cowart said.
Cowart said the benefit is an employer aid commonly used by some local governments to help public servants such as police, firefighters and teachers buy homes in areas where they work. It is said to be similar to the type of housing program (EAHP).
Clare Locey, a research analyst with the Texas Real Estate Research Center, said housing prices are declining across the DFW metroplex and more programs like Welcome Home are needed to close the affordability gap. .
“When you think about homeownership, especially for low-income and middle-income people, homeownership remains the primary mechanism for building wealth in this country. This is certainly a positive step. And I want to say “The thing is, there's a long literature on homeownership. Down payment assistance programs have been shown to be very effective,” Rosie said.
Cowart said the Habitat team hopes their investment will encourage other employers to follow suit.
“This has important implications in terms of employees being happier overall and more importantly financially stable overall,” she said.
Welcome Home participants are also required to complete a homebuyer education program. As of mid-September, eight Habitat employees have applied, and the first buyers are expected to be able to move into their homes by November 2022.
