Utah Housing Corp. aims to help 480 lower-income homebuyers

SALT LAKE CITY (Deseret News) — The stimulus to middle-income, first-time homebuyers may have dried up, but some 480 lower-income families in Utah are being lured into purchasing their first homes via a $70 million boost from Utah Housing Corp.

The public/private agency is offering below-market mortgage funds at 4.99 percent, plus financing for all of the down payment and closing costs — a major factor for any first-time home buyer — of about $8,500.

The program will finance single homes, condominiums and twin homes, as well as houses in planned unit developments.

Corporation spokesman Sterling Thomas said Thursday in announcing the funds that the mortgage loans are not anything like the subprime mortgages that were the source of the housing bust. He said they are not adjustable-rate loans, but 30-year, fixed-rate loans with equal monthly payments. Interest and principal amounts remain the same for the life of the loan.

The agency also assures potential homebuyers that they will be in good hands, because all loans are done and serviced in Utah by Utahns — both in-person and online. The loans are never sold to out-of-state finance companies, Thomas said.

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