Program to Help Families Buy Homes

First-time home buyers who could afford mortgage payments but lack enough savings for a down payment can get a break through the “California Dream” mortgage program.

Depending on the credit history and income level of applicants, Affordable Housing USA, a nonprofit group, will provide families with grants ranging from $1,000 to $4,000 to make down payments.

“The purpose, actually . . . is to help people into their first home,” said Steve Carrigan, director of Affordable Housing USA. “The door-opener to home ownership is still very difficult.”

The program, administered locally through the Woodland Hills-based National Real Estate Council, will be available to about 100 families through the year, Carrigan said.

The NREC will contact Southland renters about the program through a telephone and direct-mail campaign. Funding, largely from federal Housing and Urban Development grants to Affordable Housing USA, will be available March 15. Applications are available now.

An applicant must:

* Be a first-time home buyer who is purchasing a house to live in but use as an investment.

* Make an application with an approved lender and demonstrate the ability to make house payments.

* Attend a six-hour first-time home buyer workshop sponsored by the NREC.

* Use the grant within six months of the grant date.

Approved lenders in the Valley include Granada Hills’ First Prestige Mortgage Corp., Mark 1 Mortgage of Glendale and Burbank’s Pacific West Bancorp. For information, call the NREC at (818) 888-0101.