The Homeownership Dream: Still Within Reach If You Know Where To Look

(upbeat music) Welcome to Democracy Does, the Civic Power Playbook, a podcast that cuts through the noise to explain what's really happening in our democracy. Each episode breaks down key issues with insight from policy experts and change makers, giving you clear tips to take action. Whether you're fired up or feeling stuck, you're in the right place to get informed and get inspired because democracy works best when we all participate. Hi, everybody, and thank you again for joining us for another edition of Democracy Does, the Civic Power Playbook. One of the biggest purchases most of us will ever do or make is purchasing a home. And a lot of us are very aware of housing prices. And while the prices don't seem to be getting any better, there are people who are advocating to help. One of those is our next guest, Miss Sylvia Alvarez. She is founder and executive director of the Housing and Educational Alliance, a certified housing advocacy organization dedicated to helping people move towards home ownership. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you, Robin. And it's a pleasure to be here, anything I can do to help move that needle on housing I'm there. So thank you, and thank you for what you do. It's very important. Well, I appreciate that. Well, it really is meaningful for me to be able to talk to people like you because you help distill the misinformation out there, the confusion, and you help people get to the place where they can actually improve their lives and have a piece of what was or is the American dream. So all that being said, let's start with you. How did you become a housing advocate? Just break down your story. I'm going to break it down, and I'm going to tell you that whenever I speak anywhere, I always show this picture. And the picture is of me when I'm nine years old, standing in front of a house as under construction with my mother. And so I like to say that I've been in housing since I was nine years old because I helped her and my dad by their first home. They could not speak the language, so I interpreted for them. And in that process, I saw what joy it brought to them that they could say they owned a piece of America. And housing has always been my first love, my first date with my husband. We went to look at model homes. And the salesman says, do you have a lot? I says, no, this is our first date. So housing has always been a special place in my heart. I know how important it is. Why do you think it's been such a special place in your heart? What does home mean? What does a house mean? I guess because I've seen so much tragedy when it comes to housing during the housing crisis. It was a horrific time and we went through. We all suffered. We all knew somebody that lost a home. We all had felt the pain on so many different levels. But I think that housing is special to me because I've seen what it can do when it's good and I've seen what it can do when it's bad. You know, during the crisis, children were having to do their homework and their cars because that's the only light that they had. In Tampa alone, we had 20,000 homeless children. So, and I've been advocating for housing for more years and I'm going to admit to because that's going to tell you how old I am. But housing is such a beautiful thing when it's done right. Well, yeah, you're absolutely right. I mean, I didn't mean to cut you off, but it just represents stability and promise and opportunity. And so when you talk about seeing kids, you're based in Florida. Yes, but it's an issue all over the country. Yeah, it is. So I'll go ahead, please. No, I was going to say that I'm going to tell you that I really feel we're heading toward another cliff because as I'm also a licensed realtor, I don't work in real estate, but I just keep my license active so I can have my pulse and what's happening. And since the last housing crisis, I had set up in my MLS searches on short sales, you know, REOs that are listed. And I can tell you that for years, I didn't get one at all for years. And lately I've started seeing, it started about six months ago, one or two, two or three. And last week, I got 13 in one day. So it is coming, it's coming again. What does that tell you when you see that? That tells me that we were not good stewards of what we should be doing. And lately there have been so many cuts to funding to everything that was really working and moving that needle. And for example, we just had our budget cut, we lost $300,000 of funding because now the government is just not funding what we do primarily, which is pre-purchase counseling, had getting people mortgage ready, helping them with their credit, getting their credit in order, teaching them budgeting skills, how to find a house, how to pick a mortgage. All these things are important. And those are, they avoid the risks that most people make when they don't know what they don't know. So the education is very, very important. And now it's not funded anymore. - Yeah, and I'm glad you mentioned that the importance of what you do, I wanted you to expound upon what you do as the executive director of the housing and education alliance because without that education piece, people may be making purchases that they can't keep on top off. But, exactly. - Please explain. - Yeah, well, there's a lot of, you know, scammers out there and as we all know, you know, and the fact that they prey on people and I've even become an expert witness going to foreclosure cases and explaining, some people just didn't know what they were getting into, they were lied to. And this is happening, this is starting to, it's happening again. We kind of loosened up when things got a little better and people didn't really, you know, things were going good. There was no foreclosures, people weren't losing homes, but it is coming again, Robin. And I knew it the last time. I tried, I felt like I was Paul Revere, the foreclosures are coming, the foreclosure, you know, but in reality, it's going to happen again and may not be a severe. And there is a difference this time because last time nobody had equity. At least right now, there is still some equity if anyone purchased a home five, six years ago. So. - How much do you think some of this is because of, not only the cuts in funding to programs like yours, but also a lot of deregulation. I interviewed someone from the CFPB who said that lenders are allowed to lend with an offensively crazy interest rates. How much does that play a part? - I served on the CFPB for a while there. - Wow. - Yeah, and so anyway, the work that they do is so valuable and we made them. And they're right. So they've loosened up, things got better. So they, things have been deregulated. There's not the oversight anymore that there used to be. There used to be that, you know, lenders would get their, their hands slapped if they did something wrong and then they'd have to pay money. - Right. - But everyone's been forgiven. So, so we're back, we're back to square one. Back to square one. - And therefore, let's talk about the bipartisan bill that recently came across the desk, Trump's desk. Apparently both sides of the aisle had agreed on a bill that would make homeownership not as far out of reach as it feels right now for a lot of people. Can you talk about what the bill was? Let's start with that. - Well, first let me just say this. Okay, the bill, if it's not signed by the president within 10 days, it automatically becomes the law. All right, so we still have that hope. It hasn't been 10 days. And, but there is one little item that could prevent it from becoming a bill. And that is if Congress decides to go on a recess, then I believe it's called a pocket veto and then it automatically becomes vetoed. So there's still a possibility that it might not go through. I'm hopeful that it does. But what it does was it helps increase housing supply. It's not gonna happen overnight, but it removes a lot of the obstacles that are in the way, for example, there's so much red tape when you go try to build a house or rehab a house. And I can tell you that here in the Tampa Bay area, there are still more than one county that is suffering from people are suffering because they haven't been able to get their permits done, permitting the permitting process took forever, took a year. And that just impedes what we're trying to do. We get more units out there. So it's supposed to modernize permitting. So that's gonna be a big plus. And also help the local governments increase production whether it be of rehabbing homes or whether it be building new homes. So another big plus that I really love because we really felt it here on the ground. And that is their limiting institutional investors. So that means like the big wall street hedge funds that are coming in and lying these properties. Somebody realized that rental property is a secure investment and you can get a bigger, return on rent, then you can sometimes invest in stocks. So that was another, another thing that we really needed to get done is to move them from the market, because they would come in with cash deals, no fix the roof, no conditions. So they could slide right in. And they were outbiting all of our buyers. We had one time, we had 90 buyers approved. We could not find a house for them because these, well, not that we couldn't find a house, we would find them. But then these big investors would take them. The big private equity would just come in and take in. And that's a problem across the country. Absolutely everywhere. That's not just here. That's it everywhere. Do you think that what do you think about the status of home ownership now? I mean, you were telling us to brace for, for some issues down the line. You know, I'm not asking you to look into a crystal ball, but what do you think about the possibility of ownership now? I mean, is it, is it still, is it still a possibility for a lot of people? Definitely. And see what's bad is, you know, people are hearing that it's not, they're backing off our class numbers in our classes, which we give three different classes every month, three or four. And they're, they're holding back, especially in the Latino community and I can understand why. I think we all can understand why. Do you think home ownership is still a possibility for people who feel like it's out of reach? Yes, it is. And I want your, your listeners to understand this. Any obstacle that they have, we've gotten people through that into home ownership that have had bankruptcies. They've taken them from homeless shelters and made them homeowners. We, we have, there's people, people don't know. There is money out there for down payment assistance. We helped a single mom who was on section eight, get $110,000 and down payment assistance so that she could buy a home. So it would be affordable for her because when you put that much down, your mortgage is smaller. And of course, you know, you have, of course, a payment is smaller. So there's, there's, if they really need to seek out a HUD certified housing counseling agency and work with them because we can demystify all the issues that people are hearing right now. The other thing is mortgage rates, they people saying mortgage rates are high. They're not really that high. They're, they're pre-COVID levels. We just got used to that two and three percent during COVID. Right, right. But in reality, you know, we're not that far off the mark where we started before COVID. So there's help out there, but they've got to make the effort to do it. We've worked with people as long as two years, as long as they're willing to work, we're willing to work with them to get them mortgage ready and get them the best loan that they can get and get them the, the down payment assistance that they qualify for. We're leaving money on the table if we don't seek it out. I love that you mentioned that because the opportunities are there for people. They just need to know about that. And before I, I ask one of the questions that I always like to ask my guest, what is the benefit of having a home in a community? Why do people say having your own home, having home ownership stabilizes a community? Why is that important? Because, you know, you, you are the, the king in your castle or the queen in your castle. Let me see. So I mean, there's nothing like home ownership. You know, when you rent, first of all, you don't know the neighbors who, what are, who are your neighbors? It's more transient. If you own a home and, you know, that's why some large employers are really seeking out people like us, what we do. And, and giving this as added value for working with, with their companies, hospitals, big hospitals are doing this. And the problem is that most city centers, they can't afford to buy properties in those city centers because proper, you know, it's so expensive. So people are moving out further. So they can't keep the staff that they need to keep. They're even getting involved with workforce housing, creating housing. And, you know, someone who is a homeowner is a much more stable employee than someone that's a renter. You know, they can't just pick up and move someplace else. Right. And I've also heard that it's, you're invested in your community in a different way than when exactly what you have your home. So one of the things I like to ask my guest before they leave, what are your top three tips as an expert in this field for a lot of our listeners who want to buy a home, don't know where to start, may feel overwhelmed, are concerned about the current times that we live in as an expert. And with your incredible wealth of expertise, what are three tips you would recommend for people who want to consider home ownership? The first thing they need to do is to take a class. That is the first thing that they need to do because in the class, it's going to demystify all the things that they're hearing, which are incorrect, and give them the knowledge, knowledge's power. If they take these types of classes, they are not going to be, there'll be less likely to take, be taken advantage of via predatory lender or someone who's trying to only benefit themselves and not the buyers. So that would be the absolute first thing is to take a class and I would like to mention here that we do have an online class that they can take anywhere in the country, it's called home track online, it's at hometrackonline.org.org and it's not like most online courses of this type are lectures and boring, ours is games, cartoons, funny videos, we created with edutainment so that people aren't bored and that they really learn. Our studies have proven that when you pepper, when you pepper a knowledge or technical data with humor, people retain it better. So that's what we did. It's very funny. We've got, well, hometrackonline.org, there's a demo there, you can see it, it's a lot of fun. Great, and it really is the primary thing they need to do. Then beyond that is to work with a housing counseling agency and that's awesome. We can work anywhere in the country as well. Okay, and then what's your final tip for someone? So take a class, work with an agency and what is your third tip? I always like to do things in freeze. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. There's help out there. So don't hold back. Even though we've gone through some bad times, home ownership is still the best investment you can make for generational wealth. It's such a wonderful thing. Even though my parents were immigrants, they built many homes and every home that they built was bigger and nicer and they would make more profit every time they sold it. So don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. There's people out here who are going to help you and hold your hand through the process. And your family, they immigrated from Cuba. Is that correct? Yes, they did. That's amazing. And so from that, you have passed on that legacy of knowledge and you're passing it on to others. So thank you. Thank you so much, Sylvia, Sylvia Alvarez for this, for all that you do for the service, the education. Please let us know where can we find you? Where can people go to get information about you and the services you provide? Okay. Well, as far as the agency, the agency is housing and educational alliance, our web address is h-e-a-u-s-a.org or G is a nonprofit. As far as the class goes, it's hometrackonline.org. And I think people, they enjoy taking this class because it's fun, it's funny. We have very funny videos there. We have the good father, not the godfather, and he teaches people how to make an offer that won't be refused. This is to give you an idea. And then also, I wrote a book about my mom's life. And that's it. You can get that at SylviaAlvarez.com. And I wrote some songs which are there as well, which are going to be in the movie adaptation of the book. Oh, beautiful. That's tournaments. Congratulations. Okay. Thank you so much. This is great. Places where we can find all of this incredible information about you, about the work you do, and demystifying, demystifying what it is to buy a home because it all is still possible. Thank you so much, Ms. Sylvia Alvarez. Thank you, Yaman. Thank you for what you do. Thank you so much. Thank you. And now it's time for Sylvia's top power plays. First, she says, take a home buyer class, get informed. Knowledge is power. She also says, work with a HUD certified counseling agency. And she says, don't let fear keep you from home ownership. And if you want to learn more about Sylvia's organization, the housing and education alliance, you can go to H-E-A-U-S-A dot org. Thanks so much for joining us. We hope you're feeling a little more hopeful, a little less stuck, and maybe even inspired to take action because democracy does work when we all participate. Let's get in the game together. Until next time, I'm your host, Robin Hamilton.