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Real Life Stories
Profile: First WISH Recipient Buys Home in San Francisco - Achieves 10 Year Dream
Product: WISH Program, a matching grant program for downpayment and closing cost assistance to eligible homebuyers who have participated in a mortgage assistance program. WISH is designed to help working households in high-cost areas purchase homes near where they work.
Partners: Mission Economic Development Association (MEDA), Washington Mutual Bank
Ten years after deciding to put down roots in San Francisco, Jan Lim (not her real name) achieved her goal. Today, she is the proud owner of a 1.5 bedroom condo in Oceanview Terrace, an affordable neighborhood within easy reach of public transportation and her job.
“It took a lot of work to make this happen,” she admits. “I saved for 10 years and spent two years of that looking for the right unit to buy,” she adds. “But it’s all been worth it.”
To her friends, family and co-workers, she’s proved to be extremely determined. To prospective homebuyers, she’s an inspiration. But in Jan’s eyes, she’s an optimistic realist. “Focus on the three “P’s” of homebuying,” she says. “Be positive, patient, and persistent. With a little luck, too, you can achieve your goal.”
| The Three "P's" of Homebuying |
Jan Lim closed escrow on her new home in late January 2007 and moved in the following month. She believes homebuyers need to be positive, patient, and persistent. She offered these additional tips, as well:
- Do your research
- Go to workshops and learn
- Be organized
- Make two copies of everything
- Stay positive
- Make a budget
- Actively save – use your company’s 401K program
- Avoid credit card debt
- Cut out the frills – do you really need cable TV?
- Be patient
|
Jan’s situation is not unlike a lot of workers in high-cost metropolitan areas who may be able to make ends meet on a monthly basis, but have trouble saving the downpayment and closing costs to purchase a home in the communities where they work.
For the first quarter of 2007, the minimum household income needed to purchase an entry-level home in San Francisco at the median price of $704,230 was $141,990, assuming an adjustable interest rate of 6.3% and a 10% down payment. But in San Francisco at the end of 2006, the area median income was in fact only $91,200 for a family of 4, or $79,200 for one person. Bottom line: only 18% of all households could really afford an entry level home in San Francisco.
So when people told Jan that her dream of homeownership was impossible, they had the numbers to back it up. But Jan was never one to readily accept any situation as “impossible.” She continued to plan ahead, to save money well before entertaining a home purchase, and to do her homework on where she might find some homebuying help.
Jan’s home acquisition approach was three-fold. For years, she lived with a friend outside of the City paying little to no rent - a situation made possible because she traveled much of the time for work and was willing to forego having a place of her own. Ultimately, she saved nearly enough for a 20% downpayment on her future home.
Then, in 2003, she became a client of MEDA, the Mission Economic Development Association, and was “income qualified” for homebuyer assistance on the basis of being able to document making under 80% of the area median income, plus having low debt and some of her own savings to apply to the homebuying transaction. At the same time, she enrolled in MEDA’s series of seminars on saving for and financing a home purchase. There she learned about a variety of homebuyer assistance resources that would allow her to “layer” the financing she needed to acquire a home, (provided everything was approved on a timely basis). She also learned that could lengthen the escrow process to at least 60 days to accommodate approval delays, if necessary.
Jan’s long-term planning and execution strategy paid off. For two years while enrolled in MEDA, she shopped around for a home, attended home buying classes, and continued to save. She ruled out the pursuit of a below-market rate home because the properties were “never really quite what she wanted”-- and she didn’t like the idea of having to forfeit any equity should she ever decide to sell. Finally, in late 2006, she found a market rate property she liked on the internet, and a motivated seller who had the patience for a potentially lengthy close.
As it turned out, Jan needed every day possible for the closing process. Because of the various forms of financing she pursued, it took nearly 60 days to close the deal. Jan used the following resources to finance her home purchase:
-
WISH Program, Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco. Through Bank member Washington Mutual Bank, Jan received $15,000 in down payment and closing cost assistance. She became eligible for this $3 to $1 matching grant by making a contribution of $5000 from her own savings. Jan is the Bank’s first WISH Program recipient in San Francisco.
-
Personal savings that went toward her downpayment and closing costs.
-
Funds from the Down Payment Assistance Program (DALP) from the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Housing.
-
Funds from the California Homebuyer’s Downpayment Assistance Program (CHDAP), California Housing Finance Agency.
-
A 30-year fixed rate mortgage from Washington Mutual Bank.
Jan, who has now been in her new home for seven months, is excited to share what she’s learned. “I received so much help and support through this process, that I want to be able to help others through it,” she reflects. Jan is taking classes at a local city college so she can improve her English and help other limited English-speakers take advantage of opportunities available to San Francisco workers to purchase their own homes.
Back to Real Life Stories
|
|
|
|
|
|
Real Life Stories
Profile: First WISH Recipient Buys Home in San Francisco - Achieves 10 Year Dream
Product: WISH Program, a matching grant program for downpayment and closing cost assistance to eligible homebuyers who have participated in a mortgage assistance program. WISH is designed to help working households in high-cost areas purchase homes near where they work.
Partners: Mission Economic Development Association (MEDA), Washington Mutual Bank
Ten years after deciding to put down roots in San Francisco, Jan Lim (not her real name) achieved her goal. Today, she is the proud owner of a 1.5 bedroom condo in Oceanview Terrace, an affordable neighborhood within easy reach of public transportation and her job.
“It took a lot of work to make this happen,” she admits. “I saved for 10 years and spent two years of that looking for the right unit to buy,” she adds. “But it’s all been worth it.”
To her friends, family and co-workers, she’s proved to be extremely determined. To prospective homebuyers, she’s an inspiration. But in Jan’s eyes, she’s an optimistic realist. “Focus on the three “P’s” of homebuying,” she says. “Be positive, patient, and persistent. With a little luck, too, you can achieve your goal.”
| The Three "P's" of Homebuying |
Jan Lim closed escrow on her new home in late January 2007 and moved in the following month. She believes homebuyers need to be positive, patient, and persistent. She offered these additional tips, as well:
- Do your research
- Go to workshops and learn
- Be organized
- Make two copies of everything
- Stay positive
- Make a budget
- Actively save – use your company’s 401K program
- Avoid credit card debt
- Cut out the frills – do you really need cable TV?
- Be patient
|
Jan’s situation is not unlike a lot of workers in high-cost metropolitan areas who may be able to make ends meet on a monthly basis, but have trouble saving the downpayment and closing costs to purchase a home in the communities where they work.
For the first quarter of 2007, the minimum household income needed to purchase an entry-level home in San Francisco at the median price of $704,230 was $141,990, assuming an adjustable interest rate of 6.3% and a 10% down payment. But in San Francisco at the end of 2006, the area median income was in fact only $91,200 for a family of 4, or $79,200 for one person. Bottom line: only 18% of all households could really afford an entry level home in San Francisco.
So when people told Jan that her dream of homeownership was impossible, they had the numbers to back it up. But Jan was never one to readily accept any situation as “impossible.” She continued to plan ahead, to save money well before entertaining a home purchase, and to do her homework on where she might find some homebuying help.
Jan’s home acquisition approach was three-fold. For years, she lived with a friend outside of the City paying little to no rent - a situation made possible because she traveled much of the time for work and was willing to forego having a place of her own. Ultimately, she saved nearly enough for a 20% downpayment on her future home.
Then, in 2003, she became a client of MEDA, the Mission Economic Development Association, and was “income qualified” for homebuyer assistance on the basis of being able to document making under 80% of the area median income, plus having low debt and some of her own savings to apply to the homebuying transaction. At the same time, she enrolled in MEDA’s series of seminars on saving for and financing a home purchase. There she learned about a variety of homebuyer assistance resources that would allow her to “layer” the financing she needed to acquire a home, (provided everything was approved on a timely basis). She also learned that could lengthen the escrow process to at least 60 days to accommodate approval delays, if necessary.
Jan’s long-term planning and execution strategy paid off. For two years while enrolled in MEDA, she shopped around for a home, attended home buying classes, and continued to save. She ruled out the pursuit of a below-market rate home because the properties were “never really quite what she wanted”-- and she didn’t like the idea of having to forfeit any equity should she ever decide to sell. Finally, in late 2006, she found a market rate property she liked on the internet, and a motivated seller who had the patience for a potentially lengthy close.
As it turned out, Jan needed every day possible for the closing process. Because of the various forms of financing she pursued, it took nearly 60 days to close the deal. Jan used the following resources to finance her home purchase:
-
WISH Program, Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco. Through Bank member Washington Mutual Bank, Jan received $15,000 in down payment and closing cost assistance. She became eligible for this $3 to $1 matching grant by making a contribution of $5000 from her own savings. Jan is the Bank’s first WISH Program recipient in San Francisco.
-
Personal savings that went toward her downpayment and closing costs.
-
Funds from the Down Payment Assistance Program (DALP) from the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Housing.
-
Funds from the California Homebuyer’s Downpayment Assistance Program (CHDAP), California Housing Finance Agency.
-
A 30-year fixed rate mortgage from Washington Mutual Bank.
Jan, who has now been in her new home for seven months, is excited to share what she’s learned. “I received so much help and support through this process, that I want to be able to help others through it,” she reflects. Jan is taking classes at a local city college so she can improve her English and help other limited English-speakers take advantage of opportunities available to San Francisco workers to purchase their own homes.
Back to Real Life Stories
© 2000-2008 Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco
