SoftSecond honors Worcester for helping first-time homebuyers

WORCESTER, May 17, 2007 --- The Massachusetts Housing Partnership's SoftSecond Loan Program has recognized the NeighborWorks HomeOwnership Center of Worcester (HOCW) for its outstanding work helping low and moderate-income first-time homebuyers realize the dream of homeownership.

MHP presented a "Second to None" Award to Director Fran Paquette at the center's board meeting on May 17. HOCW was recognized for helping 59 families purchase their first home with a SoftSecond loan in 2006 and for contributing to the success of the city's Bell Hill-East Side Employer Assisted Homeownership Initiative. NeighborWorks is one of four organizations in the state to be honored by MHP, which created and administers the SoftSecond program.

"The NeighborWorks HomeOwnership Center of Worcester has done an outstanding job educating and preparing first-time homebuyers for homeownership," said Clark Ziegler, MHP's executive director. "Homebuyer education is the key to keeping families in their home for the long run and the center has done an outstanding job counseling homebuyers."

Supports employer-assisted initiative

Inaddition to helping families buy homes with SoftSecond, HOCW provided homebuyer counseling to families that bought homes through the Bell Hill-East Side initiative, a $1 million down-payment and closing-cost assistance pool designed to increase homeownership opportunities for employees of UMass Memorial Health Care and homebuyers wishing to buy homes in the neighborhoods around the three hospital campuses.

In the last 16 months, 11 families have used this assistance to buy homes in the Bell Hill-East Side area and 10 of these homebuyers used this assistance in combination with a SoftSecond home loan. Six of these families are employees of UMass Memorial. The homebuyer assistance pool was funded by UMass Memorial, the City of Worcester, the state Department of Housing and Community Development, and MHP.

"This program has shown how the city and state can combine with an employer to spark homeownership and the NeighborWorks HomeOwnership Center of Worcester has been key in educating homebuyers about the steps they need to take to buy a home," said Ziegler.

Leader in homebuyer education

"Second to None" is an MHP initiative that recognizes banks and community groups that connect homebuyers with SoftSecond, the state's most successful affordable mortgage program. SoftSecond combines a first and second fixed-rate mortgage from a bank with a small state subsidy, thereby increasing a homebuyer's purchasing power by about 20 percent. Since 1991, SoftSecond has helped nearly 10,000 low and moderate-income families purchase their first home, while maintaining historically low foreclosure rates.

One of the reasons SoftSecond has been more successful than other targeted mortgage products is that it requires homeowners to make a three percent down payment and to complete a first-time homebuyer education workshop from agencies such as Worcester's HomeOwnership Center.

Established in 2002, HOCW offers various services to expand and stabilize homeownership in the Worcester area, including post-purchase counseling for SoftSecond borrowers. It is supported by a variety of organizations, including the Worcester City Manager's Executive Office of Neighborhoods and Housing Development, Oak Hill Community Development Corporation, the Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance and Worcester Community Housing Resources Inc.

One of four organizataions recogized

HOCW was one of four organizations recognized by MHP for its outstanding work connecting homebuyers with SoftSecond in 2006. The City of Boston's Home Center also received honors for helping 143 families get SoftSecond loans.

MHP also recognized Sovereign Bank and Boston Private Bank & Trust with Second to None Awards. Sovereign was the top SoftSecond lender in the state, helping 237 families purchase their first home. Boston Private was second in the state in 2006 (159 loans) and was the top lender in Boston (87 in 2006) for the fourth straight year.

For more information about SoftSecond, click here.