Legislatively Approved Down Payment Assistance Uptake Lags As OHCS Single Family Loan Program Unwinds and No Replacement Yet in Place.

In my prior post I noted the continuing decline in loan volume for the Oregon SF bond program and the absence of a lengthily delayed "Flex" successor program. 

In looking at legislative budgets and the OHCS down payment dashboard the declining loan volume appears to be impacting the use of $10M in legislatively adopted down payment assistance that was supposed to help 2,700 OHCS home buyers in FY 2021-2023. (See PDF page 496 of Legislatively adopted budget document posted by OHCS).  

OHCS Has 2 Year Goal of 2,700 DPA's, But Looks Like Only 80--151 DPA's Have Been Made to Date. 

Helping 2,7000 OHCS homebuyer over two years would require an average of 112 DPA's per month. 

The dashboard appears to show only 9 DPA loans made in 2022 with another 142 in 2021. (It's not clear if those are FY or CY dates).  

If data is FY that's a total of 151 DPA's for FY 2021-FY 2023, with 12 months remaining to achieve the 2,700 OHCS goal. 

IF the date is CY  then assuming half of 2021 volume and all of 2022 volume that would be a total of 80 DPA's in FY 2021-FY 2023 with 12 months remaining to achieve the OHCS 2,700 goal. 

Whether FY or CY it is difficult to see how OHCS achieves it 2,700 home buyer  biennial goal. [The "Flex" program may allow loans to non first time homebuyers ad this could expand the pool of potential users beyond the bond program restriction to first time home buyers].

The Legislature Doubled Down and Added $10 Million in DPA for Culturally Responsive Organizations

The Oregon legislature added $10 M for DPA to culturally responsive organizations bringing the total to $20 M for DPA.

It's not clear if the OHCS dashboard data includes DPA's to those organizations. If  those counts DO include DPA's made via culturally responsive organizations it means that DPA roll out for OHCS loan programs is even further behind their 2,700 2 year goal. This assumes extra $10 M was intended for non OHCS loans. 

It's also not clear to me how many families are supposed to be helped by the $10M in DPA to culturally responsive organizations. If  this goal is also 2,700 home buyers helped then a two year goal of 5,400 DPA's seems highly unlikely to be met (and this would be true even without the recent jump in interest rates). 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.