First-Time Buyers Get Grants to Help Purchase Houses

If earthquakes, fires and traffic jams aren’t enough to deal with for the average Southern Californian, trying to purchase a house for the first time can be an intimidating and overwhelming experience.

But for first-time home-buyer Laurel Rodriguez and several other San Fernando Valley residents, assistance came this week in the form of a much-needed financial boost.

On Tuesday, 10 residents, designated as first-time home-buyers, were randomly selected by a nonprofit foundation affiliated with the San Fernando Valley Assn. of Realtors as recipients of $2,000 grants to be used in the purchase of their first homes.

Recipients were required not only to match the grant with $2,000 of their own money but to purchase property within the San Fernando or Santa Clarita valleys.

The winners were randomly selected from more than 130 people who completed a three-part home-buyer counseling seminar sponsored by the association and six local mortgage lenders.

Rodriguez plans to purchase the house she now rents in Pacoima.

“I had been renting for four years and found out that my landlord planned to sell the place because of low property values,” said Rodriguez, a teacher. “I had never bought a house before, so I attended the seminars and learned things about home-buying that I didn’t know about.”