BOISE - A near record-low 5.84% is the new Residential Home Ownership Rate now available through the Idaho Housing and Finance Association. The new rate is the second lowest since the Association began making residential loans in 1978, trailing only the 5.83% rate last fall. The new rate is available now through any of IHFA’s more than 30 participating lenders statewide, with nearly 80 branches. IHFA officials expect to assist in creating home ownership opportunities for nearly 400 home buyers with these new low-interest mortgage rates.

During 2001, IHFA helped 2,371 families purchase their first home by providing lower interest rates and generating a home ownership investment of $190.9 million in the State of Idaho. IHFA remains on pace for its largest loan mortgage investment ever in a calendar year.

IHFA is proud to offer residential mortgage rates that provide opportunities for Idaho's first-time home buyer families to make an investment in home ownership," said Bob Reed, vice president of Real Estate Lending for IHFA. "It’s a great investment - in themselves and in the state," he added.

IHFA offers reduced-rate mortgage loans to qualified Idaho families through a network of participating lenders throughout Idaho. Home buyers must meet income and sales price qualifications that vary by county. Since 1978, IHFA has financed more than $2.8 billion for almost 47,500 affordable homes for Idaho’s first-time and limited-income home buyers.