Portland Housing Partners with mayuchi Capital to bring you Tabor Hill Condominiums a new 37 unit affordable homeownership project

Portland Housing Center has partnered with Mayuchi Capital to help first time home buyers in purchasing a Tabor Hill Condominium, Mayuchi Capital will donate $5,000 toward the home buyer's closing cost if that home buyer is referred through the Portland Housing Center.  Read the full press release below.

    Portland Housing Center partners with Mayuchi Capital  

Own your own home and help Portland Public Schools in the process

Read the full press release regarding the Portland Housing Center's "Our Homes, Our Schools" inititative.  It is a new initiative to build healthy neighborhoods and schools through leadership development, school involvement and philanthropy.

    Our Homes, Our Schools Press Release  

HomeOwnership Center Ranking

Click the links below to read two letters received upon hearing about our #3 ranking as a NeighborWorks HomeOwnership Center! The letters are PDF files that will require Adobe or a similar reader. If you don't already have Adobe Reader installed, you can download it now.

From Commissioner Maria Rojo de Steffey

From Senator Gordon Smith

Time to buy first home just a sweet deal away

Oregonian Article

Monday June 13th, 2005

On Wednesday night, Heather Hollern's new home in inner North Portland was echoing with the footsteps of dozens of people curious about why she kept a clawfoot tub in the living room and exotic Araucana chickens, which lay blue eggs, in the back yard.

Her bathroom is clearly still under renovation. She and her husband have torn down most of the kitchen cabinets, and one of her upstairs rooms is in desperate need of new drywall.

But it is home for Hollern, a floral designer, and her husband, Thomas Bleigh, who works at a brewery. It's their first home, and that's all that matters.

"This is something we've wanted to do for a long time," Hollern says. She and Bleigh are from California and moved to Portland in 2001 after finishing graduate school in Madison, Wis.

"Portland is such a great city," Hollern says, "and there's so much here. It seems like it would be possible that we would be able to buy a house here."

Not only is it possible, it's a lot more practical now to buy a home in the Portland area than it's been in a while.

"Rates are as low as they've been in 40 years," says Jonathan Woods, a senior mortgage consultant at Chase Home Finance. "And there's a window of opportunity right now that I don't think we will see again in a long, long time."

Traditional banks have access to hundreds of loan programs that will give you more house for your money. The state just lowered its below-market interest rates for the Oregon Bond Loan program, which will give first-time buyers lower monthly payments.

The city recently put $1 million into its housing reinvestment fund. Starting in July, about $1.6 million in federal money will be available in Portland to help first-timers with a down payment, closing costs or home renovations.

In addition, this month, the Federal Housing Administration raised the loan limit -- from $213,750 to $243,200 -- for homes in Multnomah, Clackamas, Columbia, Washington and Yamhill counties, and in Clark and Skamania counties.

The FHA loans, available at many banks, have better rates, are easier to get and have more consumer protections than the subprime lenders, which suck in homebuyers with weak credit. The FHA loans also can be used for refinancing, home improvements or for duplexes, triplexes and four-plexes.

Even if a traditional lender turns you down, a number of area nonprofits and community development corporations will help you repair your credit and learn to stick to a budget, and still offer you a dynamite loan package. Plus, they'll hold your hand, if necessary.

"For people who thought they could never buy a house, ever, that's who we're here to help," says Felicia Tripp, deputy director of the Portland Housing Center, which provides its services in eight languages. This fiscal year, the nonprofit put nearly 400 individuals and families into their first homes.

Hollern, for example, says she and her husband were burdened with college loans. "Balancing things and getting financially ready was kind of a challenge," Hollern says.

After a year of taking home-buying and budgeting classes, the couple bought their 1,400-square-foot home in December. Without the center's help, Hollern says, "I don't think we would have gotten as much house as we did. We also got the best loan that we possibly could have gotten."

Wednesday was payback time. The housing center took dozens of people through Hollern's home as a way to introduce bankers, Realtors and mortgage and title company employees to the results of them working together to help Portlanders realize their dreams.

Here are a few other places that will help: the Asian and Pacific Islander Community Improvement Association, Habitat for Humanity, Hacienda CDC, the Portland Community Land Trust and Sabin CDC.

Do you hear that knocking? It's opportunity at your door. The interest rates are low; the loan programs are plentiful. And now's a darn good time to check out the possibilities.

S. Renee Mitchell