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Housing & Community | Real Life Stories « First Front Door »
First Front Door Success Stories
First-time Homeownership Opens Doors
to Hopes, Dreams, Future
“When you're renting, it's just
giving your money to the landlord. But when you own,
you have equity. It's like an investment.“
— Ron Cephas, first-time homeowner
 Cook,
husband, father and family man Ron Cephas of Wilmington,
DE, knows that becoming a first-time homeowner definitely
changed his family's life.
That's the story Ron told an attentive crowd about
getting funding assistance with down payment and closing
costs — thanks to FHLBank Pittsburgh, its member
financial institution Wilmington Trust Company and
FHLBank's Home Buyer Equity Fund (HBEF). His testimonial
helped set the stage for announcing First Front Door —
a bigger, faster and easier-to-use homebuyer grant
program being rolled out in Delaware, Pennsylvania
and West Virginia this year.
Similar to HBEF, its legacy program, First Front Door
will match every dollar the eligible homebuyer saves
with an additional $3 in grant assistance, up to a
maximum of $5,000. In 2006, First Front Door is offering
more than $6 million in funding, hoping to assist more
than 1,000 eligible low-income, first-time homebuyers
with down payment and closing costs.
Ron believes that, without FHLBank's first-time homebuyer
grant program, the Cephas family would not be living
in their own home in Wilmington's Little Italy neighborhood.
Since becoming a first-time homebuyer three years ago,
Ron said that the property has more than doubled in
value. For the family, homeownership has helped his
three children do better in school and has made them
very proud of where they live.
“First Front Door will make a
critical difference in who can become a homeowner.”
— Paul Calistro Jr., executive director,
West End Neighborhood House
“Not everybody is meant to be
a homebuyer, but for those who are, it can be an incredible
boost in building wealth. There's a value to the community,
and there's a real financial benefit to the individual.”
— David Buches, Community Investment
consultant, FHLBank Pittsburgh
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