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Housing & Community | Real Life Stories « First Front Door »
First Front Door Success Stories
Stephanie Maddrey Decorates a Wedding Cake - and a New Home
 Like so many other Americans, Stephanie Maddrey and her fiancé, Gary, longed for all the good things life has to offer - a happy marriage, a family and a place to call home.
In October 2006, those plans started coming together for the Philadelphia couple, thanks in part to FHLBank’s program for first-time homebuyers.
Conducting research online, Stephanie, the mother of two sons, came across a variety of programs for homeowners that allowed her family to leave a cramped two-bedroom apartment and move into a three-bedroom row house in Overbrook Park. Settling on two assistance programs - one of them FHLBank’s First Front Door Program, offered by Sovereign Bank - Stephanie received the maximum $5,000 grant to help her defray down payment and closing costs. With assistance from FFD and a second, $800 grant from the Philadelphia Department of Housing, Stephanie’s out-of-pocket costs to purchase her $104,000 home amounted to just $2,100. And she discovered that her credit score was strong enough to qualify for traditional financing - one of the benefits of attending a related homeownership counseling program.
By tapping into grant money, Stephanie and her fiancé were able to combine their savings to build a cash cushion for the new house as well as to pay for their upcoming wedding. “It feels really good” to be a homeowner, she says, especially because her two sons, Arrin and Mekhi, now have a permanent place to call their own. “We’re decorating everything now and really making it home,” Maddrey told BlackEnterprise.com.
More Success Stories…
From trailer to split level, the Lemines spread out
After living in a trailer home for 15 years, Dave and Shannon Lemine of Morgantown, WV decided it was time to find some growing room.
Actually, it was their kids who required it. The couple hadn’t planned on kids, but along came Philip, now 5, and Abby, now 7, making even a three-bedroom trailer too close for comfort.
‘Adopting’ Seniors Brings Two Families
Closer Together
Carolina Harvey just adored
a couple she knew in Harrisburg,
PA – so much so that
she and her husband moved all
the way from Massachusetts
to be closer to them.
“They’re like
a mother and father to me,” Carolina
said, explaining why she and
Lukeman Harvey left The Bay
State about four years ago.
Taking up residence in an apartment
in Lower Paxton, the couple
soon added a son, Jackson,
to the family. Starting to
outgrow their apartment and
anxious to become homeowners,
the Harveys located a two-story,
three-bedroom house with a
covered front porch perched
on a hill in Swatara Township,
just five minutes away from
their apartment. Their dream
of homeownership came true
on November 17, 2006, when
they closed on the property.
First-time Homeownership Opens Doors to
Hopes, Dreams, Future
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).
Mother and Daughter Settled in 'Right Home'
When Tiffany Robinson finally found the right home
in a decent neighborhood for herself and her daughter
Summer, she went to Commerce Bank of Pennsylvania to
apply for a mortgage. Though Tiffany has a good job
at a pharmaceutical company, high rent and utilities
payments had prevented her from saving enough for the
down payment and closing costs. That’s when FHLBank’s
Home Buyer Equity Fund came to the rescue.
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