KeyBank Launches Homebuyer Assistance Program for Underserved Communities

KeyBank has launched a homebuyer assistance program for underserved communities.

The new KeyBank Neighbors First Credit program provides credits of up to $5,000 to help homebuyers in underserved communities in Florida and the 15 states in which the Cleveland-based bank has a retail footprint, KeyBank said in a Thursday (July 6) press release.

“At KeyBank, helping all residents have equal access to homeownership is a priority,” Dale Baker, president of Keybank Home Lending, said in the release. “To do our part, KeyBank is reducing the barriers of homeownership through responsible lending products and services, educational support and direct investment into the diverse communities we serve.”

The new program’s credits are available to clients purchasing an owner-occupied home in an eligible community and doing so through a residential mortgage with KeyBank, according to the press release.

The credits can be used for closing costs as well as other costs that may come with a new home, such as mortgage, flood and hazard insurance, escrow deposit, real estate taxes and per diem interest, the release said.

PYMNTS research has found that consumers’ hope for homeownership is dropping.

While 30% of all consumers believed they could buy a house in January 2021, just 23% said the same two years later, in January, according to “Consumer Inflation Sentiment: Rising Housing Costs Deflate Economic Optimism.”

The decline was especially steep among members of Generation Z, where the share of consumers who believed they could buy a house dropped from 35% to 29% over that period.

In another program designed to help homebuyers, Bank of America launched what it calls an affordable loan solution geared towards Black and Latino first-time homebuyers in August 2022.

The bank’s Community Affordable Loan Solution is a zero down payment, zero closing cost program available in “designated markets, including certain Black/African American and/or Hispanic-Latino neighborhoods in Charlotte, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles and Miami.”

“Our Community Affordable Loan Solution will help make the dream of sustained homeownership attainable for more Black and Hispanic families, and it is part of our broader commitment to the communities that we serve,” AJ Barkley, Bank of America’s head of neighborhood and community lending, said at the time.