Earlier this year, George Ciccariello-Maher was the first Drexel employee to close on a new home purchased through the University’s Home Purchase Assistance Program. Since the family closed on their five-bedroom Powelton Village home, the program has rapidly progressed and resulted in three more homes sold, two more closings scheduled for this month, and another in October.
Ciccariello-Maher, assistant professor of history and politics, and his family were the first recipients of a loan under the home purchase program, established last year by President John Fry to encourage and support home ownership in the neighborhoods near campus. The program offers a forgivable loan to eligible full- and part-time Drexel faculty and professional staff toward the purchase or renovation of a home between 31st and 42nd streets from Chestnut Street to Mantua Avenue. With a loan of $15,000 and a negotiated $10,000 seller’s assist, the Ciccariello-Maher’s purchased the home using only $1,000 of their own funds.
The entire process was “smooth and easy,” Ciccariello-Maher said, thanks to the efforts of Drexel’s Human Resources Department, and in particular, HR Business Manager Qadim Ghani.
“He brought in mortgage lenders and we had banks coming to us competing to give us a mortgage. It put us in a really strong position,” he said.
The family makes mortgage payments comparable to what they were paying in rent, a result of historically low interests rates and the Home Purchase Assistance Loan.
To learn more about the Home Purchase Assistance program, click here.