Home
At Home in the City of Boston:
Allston Brighton and Fenway Reach Out
by Mary Helen Newberger and Tim Davis
After years of advocacy and planning, the Allston Brighton and Fenway Community Development Corporations (CDCs) have opened the doors to affordable home ownership in two Boston neighborhoods hit hard by 1980's condominium speculation. As part of a program called HouseBoston, a collaboration among the City of Boston, Fannie Mae (the Federal National Mortgage Association) and a group of local lending institutions, Calling the Fenway Home and Calling Allston Brighton Home provide education and counseling to first-time homebuyers. The goal is improving their access to financing and their capacity to make informed choices as well as providing technical assistance to condominium associations to build their financial and physical strength and to increase their accessibility to new owner occupants.
The Allston Brighton and the Fenway neighborhoods were selected for this pilot program because the CDCs demonstrated that though the areas were hit hardest by the collapse of the condominium market in the late 1980's, many of the condominiums remain in excellent condition. Furthermore, condominium prices appeared affordable, but were inaccessible to moderate-income people because of high down payment requirements to compensate for low owner occupancy rates that did not meet secondary market standards. Fannie Mae responded to the CDCs by introducing two new mortgage products as part of HouseBoston, the Boston Mortgage and Fannie Neighbors, which enable owner occupants to purchase condos with 3%5% down payments in associations with lower owner occupancy rates. Fannie Mae revised guidelines for the approval of financing to condominium associations, permitting them to be approved with 25% owner occupancy rates, instead of the standard 60%. The association must also demonstrate in other ways that it is healthy and stable. These guidelines and mortgages lay the foundation for the Calling Allston Brighton/Calling the Fenway Home projects
Homebuyer education is essential to the success of Calling the Fenway/Calling Allston Brighton Home. Homebuying 101 is a free 1 hour class which takes place over the course of four to five weeks. Participants are presented with unbiased information aimed at helping them to become well informed home and mortgage shoppers and responsible homeowners. Class topics include what the bank looks for when securing a mortgage, budgeting and debt, credit, finding the home you want, the Offer to Purchase document, the components of the Purchase and Sale agreement, legal aspects of the closing, selecting a mortgage, and the responsibilities of Homeownership. The material covered in the class is similar to that of other homebuyer classes and can apply to any form of homeownership. At the Allston Brighton and Fenway, however, classes contain information specific to the condominium purchase experience, including the unique aspect of obtaining financing and the payment of condominium fees, as well as insight into the Fenway and Allston Brighton condominium markets not normally revealed by real estate brokers representing sellers. Each Homebuying 101 class is co-sponsored with a HouseBoston participating lender who is an active participant in the course, making him or her self available during the course to answer questions and address concerns. Following graduation, Homebuying 101 participants receive free homebuying counseling at the sponsoring CDC, making use of Fannie Mae's Desktop Home Counselor software. This session includes an optional review of a current credit report and a discussion of which mortgage product is most appropriate for the homebuyer.
Homebuying 101 is approved for the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency (MHFA) Homebuyer Counseling program and the City of Boston's Boston HOME certificate program, which provides a $500- $1000 closing cost discount to income eligible graduates. The full $1000 will be available to condo tenants who buy a unit in the development where they rent. Participants also have free access to neighborhood condo listings notebooks, a compilation of local condo listings, recent sales data, and lists of bank owned and foreclosed properties. Nine sessions of Homebuying 101 will be held at each CDC in 1996, including classes offered in Russian, Portuguese, and Vietnamese.
Calling the Fenway and Calling Allston Brighton Home are working closely with a number of financial institutions to move foreclosed properties into the hands of owner occupiers, through CHAPA (Citizens Housing and Planning Association). In addition, units foreclosed by the FDIC, RTC, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (Federal Home Mortgage Corporation) are being marketed to area residents. In collaboration with the FDIC, early fall auctions will feature the sales of over 100 units in the two neighborhoods that will be among the most affordable available in the area. Many people will have the opportunity to buy a home in this process while moving several condominium associations from a position of weakness to a position of greater strength.
In short, Calling Allston Brighton and Calling the Fenway Home create the links and the supports necessary to connect informed and responsible condominium buyers of all income levels with stable properties whose trustees are committed to improving the health of their association.
For more information contact Ms. Newberger at the Allston Brighton CDC (617) 787-3874 or Mr. Davis at the Fenway CDC (617) 267-4637.