Saying it wants to help make homeownership more affordable, technology-powered real estate company Redfin has added a new feature to the home listings on its website: information about programs that offer down payment assistance and affordable lending.
The new feature is enabled by Redfin’s partnership with Down Payment Resource, which helps connect homebuyers with 2,200 homebuyer assistance programs, Redfin said in a press release Thursday (Oct. 6).
“Down payment assistance programs can make home ownership more attainable, but information about them is often fragmented and hard to understand,” Redfin Chief Growth Officer Christian Taubman said in the release. “We saw a big opportunity in partnering with Down Payment Resource to raise awareness about these programs to help more people become homeowners.”
Potential homebuyers looking at eligible for-sale listing pages on Redfin’s website will now see the number of down payment assistance programs that are available in that area. They can then enter some information to receive information about programs for which they may qualify, according to the release.
Redfin is adding this feature at a time when the median price of homes is 40% higher and the median down payment is nearly twice the size it was before the pandemic, the release stated.
“Partnering with Redfin is a great way to get information about financial support into more consumers’ hands,” Down Payment Resource CEO and founder Rob Chrane said. “With thousands of assistance programs available across the country, many Americans may be able to afford homeownership sooner than they realized.”
Online real estate platform Zillow announced a partnership with Down Payment Resource in December 2021, noting that rising home prices have made it increasingly difficult for potential buyers to come up with the money for a down payment.
Read more: Zillow Launches Service to Help First-Time Buyers With Down Payments
“Down payment assistance programs provide a viable pathway to homeownership, which can help build generational wealth and economic opportunity for many that may not have been able to imagine it for themselves,” said Grace Chung, who was Zillow’s director of social impact at the time.
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