Help is on the way for aspiring homebuyers in Salt Lake City. Wells Fargo is partnering with non-profit NeighborWorks Salt Lake to provide moderate to low-income families with money for a down-payment and closing costs on a new home.
Wells Fargo’s Neighborhood Lift program is providing $15,000 grants to 224 qualified home-buyers in Salt Lake City. The grants are for legal residents who do not currently own a home.
In order to receive the grant, candidates must take part in home-buyer education and counselling through NeighborWorks Salt Lake and qualify for a mortgage they can afford. Maria Garciaz is Executive Director of NeighborWorks Salt Lake.
“We know that an educated, informed homeowner is a successful homeowner,” Garciaz says. “And we know that home ownership is so important to stabilizing our neighborhoods but we have not had an opportunity for a long time to bring the dream of home ownership within the reach of so many working families for a long time. Neighborhood Lift will make that dream possible.”
Israel Soto Martinez and his mother Alejandra Martinez have been waiting four years to buy a new home. They moved to Utah from Mexico City and currently rent a home in Magna. Israel Martinez says living closer to Salt Lake City will make it easier to attend school at the University of Utah.
“We’ve been living in Utah for about six years now and we wanted to buy a house for four years,” Martinez says. “We’re just currently renting and then we heard about this opportunity and decided to join in because it’s pretty amazing that we don’t have to wait anymore to be owners.”
In addition to down-payment assistance, Wells Fargo is giving local non-profits $500,000 for neighborhood improvement projects in the city.
Homebuyers do not have to be Wells Fargo customers or purchase a home with a Wells Fargo mortgage.
Interested parties must register online at http://www.nwsaltlake.org/lift to attend the Neighborhood Lift home-buyer event at the Salt Palace Convention Center on December 12 and 13th.
