Banks work together
on home center

The facility, due to open next year,
will assist low- and middle-income
potential home buyers

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By Lyn Danninger
ldanninger@starbulletin.com

Four Hawaii financial institutions have joined forces to help create a home ownership center that will assist first-time home buyers going through the process of finding, financing, purchasing and maintaining a home.

American Savings Bank, Bank of Hawaii, Central Pacific Bank and First Hawaiian Bank are funding the initial planning process.

They expect the center will open in Spring 2003.

Part of the planning phase will be directed at determining how the center will be financed and supported over the long term, said Janis Reischmann, an organizational and project consultant who has been engaged to support the recently-named steering committee. The committee will also analyze how other such centers operate throughout the United States.

Home ownership centers have been established by the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corp., a congressionally chartered, nonprofit that works toward increasing home ownership for low- and moderate-income buyers.

The planning process will be carried out under the auspices of the Pacific Housing Assistance Corp., a Hawaii nonprofit.

One of the first steps will be to investigate the needs and resources available to potential home buyers in Hawaii, Reischmann said.

"We'll be asking questions of professionals as well as potential home buyers," she said.

Hawaii's home ownership rates continue to be significantly lower than the national average, hovering between 50 and 55 percent for the past 15 years, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The national home ownership rate was 67 percent in 2000.

Part of the committee's task will be to investigate barriers to home ownership in Hawaii, Reischmann said.

"In some ways we experience the same challenges as others but there is the high cost of living and lower income as it relates to the cost of housing here. There also may be complications for people who may be newcomers here as well and don't have English as a first language. But the cost of living is clearly one of the biggest barriers in our state," she said.

The kind of services normally available at home ownership centers elsewhere include home buyer education, affordable first and second mortgage financing, neighborhood tours, post purchase counseling, access to other services form real estate agents and insurance services.