This month, Convergence Columbus and Homeport launched a $1 million fund to help close the homeownership gap, giving up to $15,000 for home buyers. Anyone interested in the program should grab more information from their mortgage lender. has money to help families ready to make the jump to become homeowners.
Here in central Ohio, the real estate market is hot. Michael Jones is a real estate agent in Columbus, and he says that right now, it’s a sellers’ market. We’re in a housing crisis; it’s no secret, and Columbus continues to be a beacon for many people across the country and around the state so they can live, work and play. It’s still relatively affordable. We’re behind in building housing for sale,” said Michael Jones.We found in 2022 the very active market is highly competitive. The only people that could perform in many cases were the people that were paying with cash, or the people that had the ability to add more cash.
There’s homebuyer education, there’s one-on-one credit and budget counseling. Really understanding what homeownership entails, all of it. There’s insurance, there’s taxes, there’s maintenance; there is all these things that make sure someone is really prepared. Homebuyer counseling is the number-one way to prevent foreclosure,” said Evans.We still see some of the effect of historic redlining in places where African Americans could not buy homes.
What we do know is that 10% of black families and people of color take advantage of down payment assistance, whereas 43-% of white families have access to it, so that’s a disparity that we have to close. And when we talk about equity, we have to be intentional; we have to be intentional of investing in families and intentional that, if folks want to call this place home, they are able to live and work in the city,” said Council member Bankston.