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* THDA offers FHA-backed loans with down payment and closing cost assistance in Hamilton County for homes up to $240,000* Loans are available for first-time home buyers, military home buyers or those in rural or targeted areas of the state* Interest-free, forgivable loans (after 15 years in a house) are available for up to 4 percent of the purchase price to pay down payment and closing fees* 30-year loans are available from THDA at 3.99 percent, although such loans require mortgage insurance fees* On the web at www.GreatChoiceTN.com to find local lenders in the mortgage loan programSource: Tennessee Housing Development Authority
If you’re a first-time Chattanooga-area homebuyer who earns no more than $62,000 a year – or $71,000 for a family – Ralph Perrey has a mortgage deal for you.
Perrey is the executive director of the the Tennessee Housing Development Agency, which offers the Great Choice Mortgage that will cover 4 percent of qualified first-time buyers’ closing costs and the down payment – which buyers never have to repay, provided they stay in their homes for at least 15 years.
“It’s the only thing out there that offers closing cost assistance and reaches into moderate- and middle-income ranges,” Perrey said Wednesday when he visited Chattanooga as part of a statewide tour to promote the mortgage program, which has rates as low as 3.99 percent.
The state agency doesn’t offer the Great Choice Mortgage directly, it sells the mortgages through a long list of lenders, including 21 mortgage lenders in Hamilton County and 11 in Bradley County.