Nearly 1,000 people showed up at the Georgia World Congress Center for the chance to get up to $15,000 for a down payment on a home.
The two-day event ending Saturday introduced a new home-buying assistance program being rolled out by Wells Fargo, Atlanta and local nonprofit groups, according to a spokesman for the bank.
“It was cold,” said Wells Fargo spokesman Jay Lawrence. “It’s a new program….We weren’t sure what to expect.”
Still, it was “a great start,” said Lawrence. More than 200 people qualified for down-payment assistance, and about half of the $6.4 million Wells Fargo committed to the program is still available.
“We recommend that people act fast,” he said. “We think the money is going to go fast.”
The down payment assistance program, called NeighborhoodLIFT, is part of broader commitment by Atlanta’s No. 2 bank, in terms of deposits, to fund at $1.3 billion in home loans in Atlanta over the next five years.
Atlanta and Los Angeles at the pilot cities for NeighborhoodLIFT, which the bank plans to later roll out to other cities that have been staggered by foreclosures after the housing market bust.
“We really want to help the city come back from the housing crisis,” said Lawrence.
At the weekend event, would-be homeowners had to show that their income is no more than 120 percent of the median income level, or about $83,000 for a family of four, and that their credit rating is sufficient. Those who qualified must buy a home in the Atlanta city limits within 60 days to get up to $15,000 to use toward a down payment or to fix up the house.
As part of the weekend’s event, attendees could take tours to about 100 available homes that are priced in the $75,000 to $125,000 range.
People who didn’t attend the event can still seek assistance under the program through any lender, said Lawrence. But now, he said, they first will need to have a home under a sales contract. They can then ask their lender to contact one of the program’s local partners, including NeighborWorks, Invest Atlanta or Resources for Residents and Communities to apply for the assistance program, he said.
About the Author
