USDA and bank partner up to help women buy a home

Not long ago, Marla Yvette Thompson, a single mom with two children, was renting and wondering if she and her family would ever be able to afford their own home. That was before she heard about the USDA Rural Development’s home loan program.
Now Thompson and her children, Jerome Mosley, 18, and Della Bowen, 12, are enjoying their new bi-level home on Skyway Drive in the Homestead Manor subdivision in north Corydon.
They are there thanks to a mortgage partnership between USDA Rural Development and Community First Bank of Corydon. Thompson told Darrell J. Mowery of the USDA, ‘I never thought that my family could own our own home for practically what I was previously paying for rent. It’s a dream come true.’
Arthur Turcotte, vice president of residential lending for Community First Bank, said, ‘This is news because this is the result of a government program working. This is not another offering but the story of how one program has been successful.’
He said many low- and moderate-income people with difficult credit histories may not be aware of the ‘leveraged loan’ program.
CFB provided 10 percent of the loan and the USDA provided 90 percent, which enabled Thompson to purchase her home with no down payment. ‘CFB would like to do more of these loans,’ Turcotte said.
Mary A. Mudd of Loogootee, the USDA Rural Development manager in Bedford, and Turcotte presented Thompson with a tulip poplar tree housewarming gift that they planted in Thompson’s back yard, with help from Paul Neumann, of Indianapolis, the director of USDA Rural Development’s single-family housing program,
Corydon Town Council President Fred Cammack read a proclamation announcing June as National Home Ownership Month in Corydon and Harrison County. He said home ownership leads to a stronger economy, heightened community pride and increased self-esteem.
Mudd said, ‘Some people do not believe that their ‘American Dream’ of home ownership is within their reach, but after sitting down and talking with us, they may be pleasantly surprised at the opportunities that do exist. Congratulations to Marla and her family.’
During the last four years, 170,000 rural families have become homeowners across the nation by using USDA Rural Development’s loan program. That’s one reason the rural home ownership rate is a record 76.1 percent compared to 69.2 percent in urban areas, Mowery said.
USDA Rural Development (formerly the Farmers Home Administration) invested more than $1 million in Harrison County last year helping limited-income residents become homeowners. In addition to home loans, USDA Rural Development has other financial resources available for rural rent housing, water and wastewater disposal systems, community facilities and business development.
For more information about USDA Rural Development, contact its staff at 1919 Steve Ave. in Bedford, phone 1-812-279-6521, Ext. 4, or visit the Web site at www.rurdev.usda.gov.