Gifts of money down keep on giving, it seems

Programs that provide down-payment gifts to eligible home buyers sometimes get mixed reviews from critics who believe recipients do not have enough of a personal stake in their homes.

But a new study of participants in the nation’s first privately funded down-payment assistance program concluded otherwise. The survey of 36,000 families who received down-payment gifts from Nehemiah Corp. of America showed that they accumulated home equity wealth, which gave them greater economic flexibility and stability.

The benefits extended to government, according to the study done by the Milken Institute and sponsored by Nehemiah. The participants contributed about $287 million in property taxes from 1997 to 2004 in the six markets studied: Sacramento, Atlanta, Baltimore, Columbus, Philadelphia and St. Louis. For the Sacramento market, that amounted to about $24 million for El Dorado, Placer and Sacramento counties.