Connecticut's'Timeto Own' loan program for new homeowners gets infusion of $20 million
Jul. 3—For Jessica Conlon, a middle school special education teacher from Enfield, the program allowed her to move out of her parents' house and into a two-bedroom condo.
"I was able to purchase it all by myself as a single, independent woman," said Conlon, nearly 31, a University of Rhode Island graduate and former New Haven resident who moved home at the end of the COVID pandemic to save money. "It just seems like a no-brainer. My loan officer pretty much had the information. I would recommend this to anyone. The market was crazy, but the loan made me a more-competitive buyer."
Contacted Thursday afternoon, Conlon said in a phone interview that she was in the process of painting and remodeling during her summer vacation. The $25,000 loan she received — with no interest — a year ago, also lowered the monthly mortgage on her $210,000 unit.
Jose Pichardo Mirabal, 62, and Yoselin Guzman, 56, could not have afforded the house they bought in New London three months ago without the program. Immigrants from the Dominican Republican more than 20 years ago and the owners of a cleaning service, their home is their tangible American Dream.
"The program is amazing," said their daughter Vianna Almonte, 36, of Salem, the oldest of their three children, who also works in the family business and helped the Spanish-speaking couple navigate the paperwork that goes through traditional mortgage lenders and the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority, which has income guidelines. "They wouldn't even have a house right now," Almonte said in an emotional phone interview.
Announced by Gov. Ned Lamont a year ago, the program is tailored for working people such as Conlon, Mirabal and Guzman, said Marcus Smith, director of research, marketing and outreach for CHFA.
"For a lot of people, home ownership seems like a foregone conclusion," Smith said in an interview. "But we forget about the millions of folks who aren't part of that story. This can help set them on a path for their grand kids, to start building that inter-generational wealth that folks might not have the chance to do, especially lower-income folks. They still have to afford the mortgage and pay the bills, but this helps folks with moderate means at a time where headlines say inventory is low and home prices are high. It helps them compete in a really hot market."
Time To Own offers 10-year, forgivable loans with zero interest and no monthly payments beyond regular mortgage schedules. Ten percent of the loan will be forgiven annually and loans will be entirely forgiven on the tenth anniversaries of property closings.
In the first year, 1,319 Time to Own loans were approved and there are currently 524 active reservations, Smith said. Qualified homeowners are approved at the lender level, so many aspiring owners do not make it to CHFA because of issues including applicants' failure to meet mortgage requirements; they exceed income limits; they fail to meet debt-to-income or housing-to-income ratios; credit worthiness and other reasons.
The minimum loan available is $3,000, but the average loan is $30,342 on the average sale price of $262,450. The average age of homeowners in the program is 35, with about 48 percent males and 49 percent females. Those who identify as white, non-Hispanic make up 48 percent of the recipients; Hispanic or Latino, about 30.5 percent; Black or African American, about 17 percent; Asian are about 3 percent.
The authority reports that Waterbury leads the way with 76 closed loans, followed by 72 in Hartford, 71 in East Hartford, 63 in New Britain, 53 in Bristol, 44 in Newington, 42 in Manchester, 39 in Torrington, 32 in Bridgeport and 24 in New Haven.
The 10-member State Bond Commission, with no discussion, unanimously approved the extra $20 million for the program. Afterwards, during a news conference in the Legislative Office Building, the governor hailed the potential for wealth-building through Time to Own.
"To me it's one of the most-important initiatives we're doing," Lamont said. "If you talk about the wealth gap in this state, there's nothing more important than home ownership. That is an investment you can make at a relatively early age that will pay dividends. A lot of people have a really tough time making that initial down payment. We're going to make that a little easier for them."
