Home-loan program gets added benefit

The Home Town Home Loan program just got better.

Begun at the University of Washington in February, this program of guaranteed reduced fees on mortgages is available to employees buying or refinancing a home in the Puget Sound region. Depending on the location and household characteristics, additional programs of down-payment grants and interest-rate reductions also may be available.

Now, a new benefit has been added for employees living in Seattle near transit centers. People who buy homes through the UW’s Hometown Home Loan Program may qualify for a larger mortgage loan if they purchase a home in one of the city’s more densely populated areas.

The program, available under an arrangement with Continental Savings Bank, uses a formula that takes into consideration the home’s proximity to public transportation and shopping in calculating a family’s monthly expenditures for transportation. As a family’s transportation costs decrease according to the formula, they become eligible for a larger mortgage loan. The formula is based on studies of the spending habits of six million people in large U.S. cities that show the more stores near a home and the closer it is to a bus line, the fewer car trips a person is likely to take.

The differences can be substantial. For example, a family living on Capitol Hill is likely to spend $155 a month less on transportation than the King County average. When Continental translates this into its mortgage formula, it means the family could qualify for a home priced at $207,583, instead of $166,955.

For more information, visit the Web
site: http://www.washington.edu/admin/benefits/hometown.html. The Hometown Hotline number is 628-0207. ¶