Homeownership

This article was written by VHFA Spring Housing Fellow Christina Cramer

Governor Scott announces a new grant program, the Homeowner Assistance Program (HAP), which will help Vermont homeowners facing pandemic hardships. The program will be managed through the Vermont Housing Finance Agency (VHFA) and is now accepting applications. The program, funded by $50 million from the federal American Rescue Plan Act, will provide grants of up to $30,000 per household towards overdue mortgage payments, utility bills, property taxes, and property association charges. VHFA anticipates that the program will run for multiple years to help reduce the long-term risk of foreclosure and home loss due to the pandemic.

The median Vermont primary home sold for $259,900 during the first six months of 2021, compared to $245,000 throughout 2020, a six percent increase. This aligns with the 6.9% price increase seen between 2019 and 2020, suggesting that the state is on track for significant but steady growth in home sale prices. 

On Monday, the Vermont Housing Finance Agency (VHFA) Board of Commissioners awarded $425,000 in state housing tax credits for homeownership development projects. Once sold to investors, the credits will yield nearly $2 million in equity for construction. The projects will create new, high-quality homes affordable to low- and moderate-income Vermont homebuyers, which are virtually unavailable in Vermont’s in private housing market.

The Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University recently released their annual State of the Nation's Housing report for 2021. The report outlines how the nation’s growth in headship and homeownership rates are being driven by millennials who are just catching up to previous generations in forming independent households. This household growth, however, demonstrates how the pandem

VHFA released a draft program description and income limits this week for the Homeowner Assistance Fund that will start in the next few months. The Homeowner Assistance Fund was created by the federal American Rescue Plan Act to help homeowners avoid foreclosure and displacement by mitigating financial hardships related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Fund will provide Vermont up to $50 million over a multi-year period to provide assistance for mortgage and other expenses facing Vermont homeowners.

Due to limited funding, applications for the current round of Vermont COVID Emergency Mortgage Assistance must be submitted by 4:00 PM on Wednesday, June 30, 2021. Until then, eligibility requirements and application instructions will remain available on VHFA’s website at www.vhfa.org/map.  All grant awards are  subject to funding availability. 

VHFA is gathering input and data regarding two components of the Homeowner Assistance Fund (HAF) slated to open later this year. HAF was created by the federal American Rescue Plan Act to provide relief for homeowners experiencing financial hardship after January 2020. The Fund will provide Vermont up to $50 million over the next 4 years to provide assistance for mortgage and other expenses troubling homeowners with pandemic-related hardship as well as for housing counseling and legal services.

VHFA will be hosting two public meetings on June 1 and June 3 to discuss how to use federal American Rescue Plan Act funding to serve Vermont homeowners. The Homeowners Assistance Fund, created by the act, will provide Vermont up to $50 million over the next 3 years to provide assistance for mortgage payments and other expenses troubling homeowners with pandemic-related hardship.

Meetings will be held via Zoom on Tuesday, June 1, 2021, at noon and Thursday, June 3, 2021, at 5 PM (meeting hyperlinks and call-in phone numbers below).  VHFA will use community input from these meetings to help design programs targeted to homeowners with incomes at or below the area median and to socially disadvantaged homeowners.  

The Vermont program that helps homeowners who have fallen behind on their mortgage or property taxes during the COVID-19 pandemic will re-open on Monday, May 3, 2021.  The Mortgage Assistance Program will provide grants covering up to 12 months of past due mortgage payments and property taxes for eligible homeowners.  

Funded through the federal CARES Act, the program operated first in July through December 2020, providing 636 Vermont households with grants averaging $6,000. With average monthly mortgage payments of $1,200, most of these households owed three months or more of payments and the majority were in a forbearance.