Wells Fargo is partnering with the City of Atlanta and nonprofits to spur home buying and help stabilize neighborhoods inside the city limits.
The bank, nonprofits including NeighborWorks America, and the city will unveil a program Wednesday called Neighborhood LIFT that includes down payment assistance for lower income buyers, renovation grants and a new 5-year mortgage lending commitment by metro Atlanta’ s No. 2 bank by deposits.
Atlanta and Los Angeles are the pilots for Neighborhood LIFT, a program Wells Fargo officials said they plan to take to other cities ravaged by foreclosures. Georgia was No. 4 in foreclosure rate in 2011, while Atlanta ranked 12th by metro areas in the nation, according to a report this month by RealtyTrac.
It kicks off in Atlanta on Feb. 10-11 with a road show of homes and home buying workshops at the Georgia World Congress Center. That event will include tours of about 100 available homes throughout Atlanta and borrower education seminars. Attendance is free and open to anyone interested in buying and living in a home inside the city limits, but participants are asked to register at www.neighborhoodlift.com.
The announcements coincide with Wells Fargo announcing it will commit to fund $1.3 billion in home loans in the city over the next five years.
“Our goal is [the program helps to sell] hundreds and hundreds of homes, and to make a big impact,” said Mike Donnelly, metro Atlanta regional president for Wells Fargo.
Many banks have come under fire for not moving quickly to prevent foreclosures and for flawed foreclosure practices. Donnolly said the move is not for a public relations boost, but to help stabilize neighborhoods in a key market.
The initiative builds on mortgage assistance events and modification programs, bank officials said.
Most of the featured homes – from the Northside Drive corridor near Atlantic Station to Kirkwood to Peoplestown -- will be priced in the $75,000 to $125,000 range. Many are foreclosed homes or otherwise abandoned properties renovated through Neighborhood Stabilization Program grants.
Wells Fargo officials said they also intend to open up the road show to Realtors to show off owner-occupied homes for sale in the city.
The bank is donating a total of $8 million for down payment assistance, renovation grants, various local initiatives and the tour of homes.
Down payment and renovation assistance of up to $15,000 is limited to home buyers with incomes up to 120 percent of the median income for the city, or about $83,000 for a household of four. The grants can be forgiven if the home buyer lives in the property for five years.
John O’Callaghan, president and CEO of the Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership, said the event could spur hundreds of home sales, and help would-be buyers on the fence jump in.
“My hope is this could be a shot in the arm to the market,” he said.
Neighborhood LIFT
Georgia World Congress Center. Feb. 10-11, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. For more information, www.neighborhoodlift.com
