Is Now the Time to Buy? Homeownership Re-examined

By Marietta Rodriguez
director, National
Homeownership
Programs & Lending

The boom and bust of the housing industry in recent years has fueled doubt about the value of homeownership and caused many to re-examine the long-held belief that homeownership is a viable path to a stable and successful financial future.

In a recent report, our network member, Homewise, makes a strong argument that homeownership is still a smart choice, and that current market conditions offer an unprecedented opportunity for Americans to advance to economic ladder. According to their research, the typical homeowner purchasing a $200,000 home today, will amass nearly $500,000 dollars more than a renter over a 30 year period. Homeownership also provides important non-economic benefits, like stability and security, which are important for personal happiness, child development and family unity.

At NeighborWorks America, we support homeownership as a goal for many families. Homeowners typically stay longer in one location and contribute to lasting neighborhood improvements which support higher property values. Homeownership also builds both confidence and long term wealth for families of all backgrounds. For many low- and moderate-income homeowners, a house is their primary financial investment, which is critical when they need to take out loans for their children’s education or to start businesses.  Currently, interest rates are at historic lows and there is far more affordable inventory on the market, even in high priced markets like Santa Fe, New Mexico, making this an ideal time to buy for those who are ready.

However, for the benefits of homeownership to be fully realized, the purchase must be sustainable and must be a good fit for the personal and financial needs of the buyer. The buyer’s stage of life must also be considered. For example, younger buyers must weigh the financial advantages of homeownership against the risks of needing to quickly relocate to pursue a job opportunity.

To help individuals understand which option is right for them, NeighborWorks America has dedicated substantial resources to training a network of HUD-certified counseling agencies and to establishing a network of NeighborWorks HomeOwnership Centers throughout the country. Every day the NeighborWorks Network members provide people across this country with services ranging from financial education to individualized homeownership counseling in preparation for making an informed homeownership decision. The homeownership counselors help customers decide what next steps are best for them and their long term happiness and prosperity —  sometimes this is a new house and sometimes it is finding an affordable rental or repairing credit.

My hope is that the economic crisis will leave us understanding the importance of a middle ground for homeownership. It is neither a fast track to wealth that some imagined during the boom years nor is it the folly its critics claimed after the foreclosure crisis had begun. Homeownership is an individual choice that when pursued with eyes wide open and focused on personal and financial goals could be the basis of a great future.

To read Homewise’s recent reports on homeownership, click here.

To find a homeownership counselor, visit www.nw.org. 

Serving Our Nation’s Veterans

By Brittany Hutson, NeighborWorks America public relations fellow

Ronald, U.S. Army, and his wife, Denise

Every day NeighborWorks organizations across the country salute our nation’s military veterans by offering them the housing and additional services they need to live in affordable homes and take part in strong, vibrant communities. One of those organizations is the Primavera Foundation (Primavera) in Tucson, Arizona. Primavera, which assists individuals and families out of poverty and homelessness, offers veterans housing support and temporary financial assistance through the Project Action for Veterans program (Project Action).

Project Action is supported

Jac’Queline, U.S. Army

by grants from the Veterans Affairs’ Supportive Services for Veterans Families (SSVF) program and it’s a collaboration between Primavera and two local nonprofits – Old Pueblo Community Services and Esperanza en Escalante. Tammie Brown, manager of Project Action, says that in fiscal year 2011 Primavera served nearly 500 veterans through their transition out of homelessness. The veterans’ transition was supplemented by job seeking and training services, temporary financial assistance, and financial education. Primavera assists veterans of all ages with a large concentration ranging in the 35 to 61 age group. Brown says Project Action is expecting to work with younger veterans in the upcoming months as they return home from Afghanistan and Iraq. In 2011, Primavera served 29 veterans of these conflicts.

John, U.S. Navy

Primavera is also committed to supporting veterans who are homeless or facing eviction. This is important for the nearby Pima County, Arizona, where one of every 145 residents is homeless, many of them veterans.  Primavera’s approach is to seek long term solutions to the underlying causes of homelessness. Project Action participants are assessed to identify the causes of their homelessness, and then Primavera provides an individualized support program to help participants overcome those barriers. “We find that unemployment seems to be the biggest barrier,” says Brown. “In Pima County, employment is very scarce if you don’t have the job skills to tap into the military, healthcare, aviation or university industries. We sent some vets to truck driver training school and paid for another to receive airline inspection training.” Once the individualized support program is created, the veterans work with a Primavera case manager for up to five months. In the interim, the program offers short term and temporary financial assistance for needs such as rental payments, rental deposits, and utility payments.

Just as our veterans worked tirelessly and selflessly to defend our country, NeighborWorks organizations are dedicated to ensuring that our veterans are supported when they return home.

How are you helping veterans in your community? Post a response below or contact us via Facebook or Twitter.

Training to Change the World

By Sara Varela, Community Building and Organizing program

October 25 to the 28 marked not only NeighborWorks Community Leadership Institute (CLI) in Orlando, Florida, but also my nine year old’s birthday, Hurricane Sandy passing through the East Coast, the closing on my house and much more. So needless to say, things have been crazy recently. However, it's worth stopping to reflect on the great things that came out of the CLI and why it matters.

The CLI is an annual gathering of 110 different resident volunteer teams from across the country. NeighborWorks America holds the event because we believe that residents are in the best position to make substantial positive impact in their communities, and that their impact will be even greater if these leaders are trained in best practices and can learn from the experiences of others.

Attendees are part of teams, each comprised of six to eight people who live nearby and come together to address a specific problem. During the CLI, team members participate in top-notch trainings with some of the best instructors in the country. Teams who submit an Action Plan to NeighborWorks America receive a $2,000 seed grant to help them leverage local resources and see their plans turn into reality.

These plans lead to great community projects, like the Sabor del Northside community festival in Houston, Texas, where schools, businesses, artists, community organizations, and residents came together to put on an event attended by more than 1000 people. Other CLI-related projects have included a cross-state safe prescription drug disposal program, a safety awareness fair, community gardens and youth leadership programs.

The CLI supports these community enhancement projects by providing a contagious, positive and invigorating experience for attendees that helps them to go from concept to completion. The CLI instructors are not what you might expect from a big corporate training event. Each of them was passionate about their work, so much so that their energy radiated from every classroom. They have taught me important skills, but most importantly, they have inspired me as have many of the participants who strive for greatness, to overcome obstacles and to expect positive change when communities join forces to solve their problems.

Dorothy Richardson mural from the Orlando
Neighborhood Improvement Corporation

The CLI is also the time where we honor the Dorothy Richardson Resident Leadership recipients, people who exemplify a spirit of service and a commitment to a better future in their communities. For profiles of these amazing people, check out nw.org/drawards. There’s also a great video there with stories about what a difference resident leaders can make.

Adding to these indoor activities, the CLI had practical workshops and tours of the Orlando communities. We also had a virtual presence via Twitter (see Storify summary) and a Facebook group for participants. Using these tools, attendees could comment on their experiences, talk with others and tocapture the event from their perspective.

It is the first time I’ve see so much interaction and engagement online from so many people. The Facebook group allowed many of us to meet in person, to learn what was happening in the sessions and tours, and hopefully it will continue to capture the energy and enthusiasm of participants as they implement their action plans over the next year.

Tap Bui (center) with her team from Mary Queen of Vietnam
from New Orleans. She was my partner in one of our sessions
and it's great to keep in touch using the Facebook group.

I am really hoping we can continue to see updates, photos and videos from every single team who attended the CLI. It would be fantastic if we could keep up with the successes, road blocks and challenges of the teams as they go back to their communities.

Overall it was a tremendously successful event that reminds me why I do what I do, and which I believe can change the world, one community project at a time.

5000 Starbucks Volunteers Help Fifth Ward CRC Make a Better Houston

By Gary Wolfe
District Director, Rocky Mountain Region

How do neighborhoods go from declining to improving? Fifth Ward Community Redevelopment Corporation (Fifth Ward CRC) has used partnerships to help turn around Houston’s Fifth Ward.  Most recently, Fifth Ward CRC partnered with Starbucks, during their Global Leadership Conference in Houston, to make a positive difference in the lives of the Fifth Ward residents.

Starbucks "Team Blue" built a playground

In early October, more than 5,000 Starbucks employees volunteered with community members to make a tangible impact.  Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said to KHOU 11 News “When I walked through the Fifth Ward and saw the conditions of the houses and really the people in need, I just thought this is where we need to be.”

In the Fifth Ward, the day began when the thousands of Starbucks volunteers took a bus from their downtown hotels to staging grounds at local churches. There, they ate lunch, learned about the Fifth Ward neighborhood and grabbed the tools they needed to paint homes, install pocket parks and community gardens, clean up vacant lots, put up community artwork and the like. Fifth Ward CRC projects focused on the Lyon’s Avenue Corridor, a 22 block area which encompasses the community’s “main street” and comprised of residential, commercial and public spaces with a unique blend of historical markers reflective of the community’s native sons and daughters. 

In total, more than 9,000 Starbucks employees who attended the Global Leadership Conference participated in volunteer projects across Houston. On average, the Starbucks employees volunteered between four and six hours at each project for an impressive total of more than 42,000 hours of community service over the three days of the conference.

Lyons Avenue Renaissance sign with
numerous partners listed

For the Lyon’s Avenue Corridor area, the volunteering was just one piece of the ongoing revitalization work. Fifth Ward CRC is committed to a complete community renaissance, which will include not only great homes and clean streets, but also new jobs and opportunities. Michael Emerson, Chairman of the Fifth Ward CDC told KHOU 11, “This is an image for us of what Fifth Ward is going to be,” said “We’re creating an economically diverse, ethnically diverse, economically strong, new neighborhood here in Houston.” Fifth Ward CRC has formed partnerships not only with Starbucks, but also with the City of Houston, Rice University, University of Houston and the American Regional Institute of Architects to change the landscape and future of Fifth Ward. With the help of collaborations like these, Fifth Ward CRC can return to being a “neighborhood of choice.” 

To learn more about the Starbucks-Fifth Ward partnership, view this news video or click here to see more photos.

What Makes You Part of a Community?

This blog entry is reposted from the Stable Communities blog. 

Avenue CDC photo courtesy of
Epic Shots Photography

A three-year study by Gallup and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in 26 communities has been exploring the factors that attach residents to their communities and how community attachment plays a role in an area's economic growth and well-being. In general, the study results have shown that cities with the highest levels of attachment had the highest rate of GDP growth.

The Knight Soul of the Community (SOTC) study has studied residents' attachment to their communities — and how it's related to economic development — over 3 years, using interviews in English and Spanish with 14,000 residents.

The study analyzed 10 "domains" that were found to drive community attachment at varying levels:

• Basic services — community infrastructure
• Local economy
• Safety
• Leadership and elected officials
• Aesthetics — physical beauty and green spaces
• Education systems
• Social offerings — opportunities for social interaction and citizen caring
• Openness/welcomeness — how welcoming the community is to different people
• Civic involvement — residents’ commitment to their community through voting or volunteerism
• Social capital — social networks between residents

The SOTC site has results by community, a video gallery. Of special interest to community organizers and others working in their community include reports, videos and data that can be downloaded and shared. A Twitter feed provides a place to share experiences (with hashtag #SOTC).
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