Visit the Photo Place

Program helps low-income renters realize dream

Date published: 2/28/2003

WASHINGTON--Jesse and Trendia Horton had seen the posters touting a new effort designed to put low-income renters in their North Little Rock, Ark., neighborhood into homes of their own.

They had seen and heard the television and radio spots, too. But they didn't think it was something they were ready for, at least not right now. "We didn't think we were old enough or had enough money to be homeowners," Jesse says.

But every month when the couple paid their rent to the Argenta Community Development Corp., a local nonprofit, they were told they were "perfect candidates" for the new $43 million Pulaski County Dream to Own Program. So they decided to pay the $25 application fee and let the chips fall where they may.

Now the Hortons and their two youngsters are in a three-bedroom, one-bath house with a fenced back yard in the Mid-City section of North Little Rock. They don't own it just yet. But if they keep their noses clean, they will own it in three years when they will assume the remaining 27 years of the mortgage from Argenta.

The Hortons are one of the first families to be qualified under an experimental lease-to-own program started last spring by Freddie Mac, a major supplier of mortgage funds. It is one of a spate of innovative new programs initiated to help renters become owners. Even big-time landlords are getting in on the act.

Equity Residential Properties, a Chicago-based real estate investment trust that owns 225,000 units in 1,100 apartment communities nationwide, enrolls every one of its tenants in its Rent With Equity program. And the Apartment Investment and Management Co., a Denver-based trust with 327,000 units in 1,800 properties in 47 states, just rolled out a similar program for qualified tenants.

The two programs and others like them are self-serving in that they are designed to attract residents and keep them longer. But that shouldn't deter tenants from taking advantage of them. As Equity Residential proclaims in one of its brochures, "Our loss is your gain."

Attracting and retaining occupants is a big problem in the apartment business, especially with mortgage rates so affordable right now. For example, nearly 70 percent of Equity Residential's 225,000 residents move out every year, 40 percent of them to buy a house. And that's not out of the ordinary, industry sources report.

Follow us on

Date published: 2/28/2003