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CDA to prioritize housing loans
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Posted on Jan 04 1999
The Commonwealth Development Authority vowed to prioritize housing loans this year to ensure that homeless people still get the chance to own a house despite the Northern Marianas’ economic difficulties, according to CDA Board Chairman Juan S. Tenorio.
CDA’s allied agency, the Northern Marianas Housing Corp. or NMHC, will carry out the goal through its various housing loan programs.
“Right now, I’m pushing for more housing loans. I think it would be to the community’s advantage to have an equity on housing loans,” Tenorio said.
A housing loan borrower automatically builds up an equity. After 10 years, he becomes eligible to borrow at least 10 percent of the total value of his assets said Tenorio.
“The assumption is that people will work harder and prefer to have a stabilized employment because they have an obligation to meet. When you put up homes, you build up equity. After 10 years, you can borrow a portion of that equity. Assuming your loan is $100,000, you can borrow up to $10,000,” the CDA chief said.
Although NMHC is constantly besieged with home loan applications, Tenorio said most have yet to realize the agency caters to people from all walks of life.
“The perception in the past was that MIHA is only for the underprivileged and so-called locals. That is no longer the case. It’s not only for the low-income. It’s for everybody,” Tenorio said.
NMHC also provides housing loans to lease holders and private land owners, provided they are US citizens. It aims to enable at least a thousand more families have their own houses by year 2000.
The government has no exact figure of homeless locals and island-based dwellers. But observers estimate them to be in the thousands who are constantly burdened in raising the necessary rental fees.
