(Updated at noon on 7/10/23) Recently, a family of five with three boys bought a two-bedroom home with a den in Arlington, thanks in part to a little-known county program that helps first-time homebuyers secure a mortgage with small loans.
“They were completely comfortable with that,” says Karen Serfis, a program manager with Latino Economic Development Center, who helped the family work with the county to get the loan. “Not everybody wants to live in a two-bedroom with a den but they wanted to stay in Arlington.”
Since 2018, Arlington County has operated the Moderate-Income Purchase Assistance Program (MIPAP), which helps income-eligible people buy homes that cost less than $500,000. Last year, it issued 13 loans to applicants, 65% of whom were single and 25% of whom belonged to two-person households. They were able to buy one-bedroom or small two-bedroom units.
The number of loans issued last year could be a program record for the last decade, according to data provided by Serfis and the county, which is seeing more people interested in accessing the funding.
As interest in the program grows, however, applicants are finding few housing options under $500,000. On top of an income eligibility restriction of 80% of the area median income (AMI), that makes the program difficult for many to effectively utilize.
“There’s been a huge uptick in people trying to use MIPAP in the last year and I don’t know why,” Serfis said. “Is it because it’s so impossible to buy? I don’t know. Is the county doing better outreach? Possibly. Or are people more aware of these programs because they’re on the internet?”
Arlington County says it could be because applicants were confident in post-pandemic economic recovery and could be taking advantage of another county program that uses state funding to lower loan interest rates one percentage point.
Despite the uptick in recent years, MIPAP is just now reaching the numbers of people helped in the late 2000s, when the program was run by a local nonprofit affordable housing developer. In the years before AHC, Inc. ceded it to Arlington County to focus on rentals, the number of loans issued fell to four to six per year throughout the 2010s.
Some say the program’s structure and requirements are getting in the way and it should be revamped. They say Arlington County should raise the $500,000 purchasing price limit as well as the income restrictions, rebrand the program and spread the word.
“MIPAP is an anemic program and represents a significant underinvestment in helping Arlington residents successfully transition to homeownership,” says Kellen MacBeth, a housing policy advocate and member of the Arlington branch of the NAACP. “Homeownership offers unique opportunities to bridge the racial wealth gap and we need to step up county support for residents, especially residents of color, looking to become homeowners.”
The program is funded by the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, which stipulates households must earn at or below 80% AMI, or $120,560 for a household of four, and qualify for a conventional first-trust mortgage. Under both these conditions, lenders typically say applicants can qualify for homes priced below $400,000, according to the county.
