Employee Benefit Packages Now Include Homeownership:
Philadelphia Home•Buy•Now
Presented by Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition

It is no secret that businesses today face rising health care costs. Across the nation, many deal with the challenge by passing on part of the added cost to their employees or cutting other benefits. Yet in Philadelphia, an increasing number of employers are introducing an attractive, low-cost benefit: the opportunity for employees to buy homes. They are doing it through a new program called “Philadelphia Home•Buy•Now.”

Philadelphia Home•Buy•Now opens the path to homeownership while helping employers retain and recruit valuable employees. Longer term, it fosters business growth and neighborhood economic vitality.

Here is how it works. Philadelphia Home•Buy•Now will provide matching grant funds to help employees at any income level purchase homes within the City of Philadelphia. The program also offers homebuyer education programs to prepare employees for homeownership, as well as help with home improvement financing, for employees who are already homeowners.

Unlike other benefit programs, this program has no recurring costs to the employer. The City of Philadelphia will match on a dollar-for-dollar basis, employer contributions up to $3,000 for every employee who buys a home in Philadelphia. That gives employees up to $6,000 at the settlement table. In addition, many employees will also qualify for up to $2,000 in closing cost assistance through the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency (PHFA).

Philadelphia Home•Buy•Now employers are able to customize what they offer their employees in order to meet individual business needs. Employers receive technical assistance to help implement and track the program in ways that minimize employer involvement and costs.

Joining the ranks in 2005 is Chamber member, St. Joseph’s University. The University utilizes Home•Buy•Now as a recruitment tool, offering home purchase assistance on the first day of employment in the form of a $3,000 forgivable loan. The loan is converted to a grant if the employee stays with the University for three years. In addition, the program serves as a neighborhood revitalization and community outreach tool:  employees must buy homes in the two city zip codes adjacent to the campus that encompasses the Overbrook and Wynnefield neighborhoods (19151 and 19131 respectively).  

Employers of all sizes are encouraged to join the list of 28 participating employers - that now includes Keystone Mercy Health Plan, Drexel University and the Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition - in offering this new benefit. Citizens Bank, Fannie Mae and NewCourtland Elder Services, businesses that introduced their own homebuyer assistance programs several years ago, are enhancing their offerings with products available through Philadelphia Home•Buy•Now.

Philadelphia Home•Buy•Now is funded by the Mayor’s Neighborhood Transformation Initiative and is administered by the City’s Neighborhood Transformation Office and in part by the Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition. For more information, visit www.empowermentzone.org or contact Jim Flaherty, 215-683-2126; jim.flaherty@phila.gov.

Save the Date: Join Chamber members for a Philadelphia Home•Buy•Now forum on October 18th, 8:30am – 10:30am at the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, 200 South Broad Street, Suite 700. For more information and to RSVP, contact Ana Fuentes, 215-683-2025; ana.fuentes@phila.gov.