Wilmington's Home Ownership Pool program provides up to $25,000 in down payment assistance for homebuyers in Wilmington city limits for loans aimed at smaller homes. Eligible buyers have to take a homebuyer education class to qualify, and more than a dozen people a year historically were able to buy homes through that partnership with the city.
But in 2022, things slowed down significantly for HOP. Only three participants were able to find and buy a home under the program. Wilmington Community Development and Housing Planner Suzanne Rogers said the hot housing market in Wilmington drove up prices and competition, and kept a lot of eligible buyers from finding success.
Rogers hopes recent changes to the HOP program help participants buy houses more successfully. The city raised the loan amount to $327,000 because of rising home prices. And the city also made another change aimed at improving run-down homes in Wilmington.
"So a homebuyer could get up to $50,000 to go towards the purchase of a home and the fixing up of the home," Rogers said. "We think that there's more housing stock available in the price point that our borrowers need, and also one of our goals is to preserve our existing housing stock."
These loans are aimed at fixer-uppers, which tend to not sell as quickly. The city also writes a scope of work for the project and finds contractors to work with the homeowner.
Rogers says they just started the program this year, and have already had a couple of takers.
"We are just actually closing out the construction or rehab construction on one property for one homeowner," she said. "It's a fixer-upper, not a do-it-yourselfer."
Interested residents can apply on the city's website and sign up for homebuyer education courses. There are ten courses a year.
