When Margaret O\u2019Neal, chair of the city\u2019s Affordable Housing Commission, first moved to Juneau in the early \u201870s she found that many people who owned houses had first lived in mobile homes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a very Alaskan kind of experience,\u201d she told the Empire. \u201cThat was how people built equity, but you have to have financing first.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, more than 40 years later, a program she helped launch has the potential to set Juneau residents on that \u201cvery Alaskan\u201d road to equity.<\/p>\n
This week the city launched its mobile home down payment assistance program, a partnership with True North Federal Credit Union. The program, which originated in the Affordable Housing Commission, will allow Juneau residents with a median household income of less than $96,800 annually to obtain low-interest loans covering up to half of their down payments.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything that we\u2019ve seen over the years says that we need to provide as many tools possible to grow our affordable housing stock, and this is another tool,\u201d said Scott Ciambor, the city\u2019s chief housing officer.<\/p>\n
Mobile homes represent a sizable chunk of Juneau\u2019s affordable housing stock, according to Ciambor. There are more than 1,200 mobile homes in Juneau, accounting for roughly 11 percent of the city\u2019s overall housing stock. <\/p>\n
Mobile homes offer a less expensive alternative to renting than conventional homes, but that doesn\u2019t mean they are easy for everybody to get into.<\/p>\n
Typically mobile homes have higher down payment requirements, according to Bill Peters, vice president of Corporate Development for True North. People buying mobile homes are typically asked to put 15 percent down whereas a first-time homebuyer purchasing a conventional house might only have to put 5 percent down.<\/p>\n
This means that a person looking to buy a $100,000 mobile home would have to make the same down payment as a first time homebuyer purchasing a $300,000 house.<\/p>\n
\u201cMobile homes \u2014 particularly mobile homes in parks \u2014 are a mainstay of affordable housing here,\u201d Peters said.<\/p>\n
For the past three years, True North has been offering financing for mobile home down payments, Peters said. During that time, the credit union has booked 22 loans for homebuyers with annual household incomes ranging from about $40,000 to nearly $90,000. Now the city is sweetening the deal. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s offering loans to match up to 50 percent of mobile home down payments through True North. These loans, which will have to be paid back in five years, will carry a 1 percent interest rate, which is quite low Peters said.<\/p>\n
So if our hypothetical homebuyer looking to purchase a $100,000 mobile home with a down payment of 15 percent were to take advantage of this new program, he or she would have to put $7,500 down, and the city would loan him or her the remaining $7,500.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe essentially process the city\u2019s loans in conjunction with our lending,\u201d Peters said.<\/p>\n
If everything works according to plan, Peters said this program could help younger or lower-income families begin building equity, a crucial step for those looking to climbing the housing ladder.<\/p>\n
The city has set aside a little more than one fifth of its nearly $500,000 affordable housing fund to support this program. It will continue to provide down payment loans until the $100,000 it has reserved for the program runs dry.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s too early to say the extent to which the mobile home down payment program will ease the high cost of housing in Juneau. For Ciambor and O\u2019Neal, though, it\u2019s an important new tool for their toolbox \u2014 so long as people know about it, that is.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have such a stuck market, so some of the work that we have to do is let people know that these resources and tools exist,\u201d O\u2019Neal said.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact reporter Sam DeGrave at 523-2279 or sam.degrave@juneauempire.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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