Summit aims to create home-buying incentives

LYNNWOOD — Onamac Industries Inc. is doing whatever it takes to get and keep good employees.

The Everett contractor, which does assembly work for the Boeing Co., offers its 120 employees competitive wages and benefits such as tuition reimbursement. Still, competition for qualified employees in Snohomish County, particularly skilled machinists, is stiff, said Bruce Rinell, operations manager for the company.

So the company sent Rinell to a summit Tuesday to bone up on another incentive it may offer its employees: help buying a home.

“This is just one more incentive we could offer to make our company more attractive,” he said.

For many employers, helping their workers buy a house is uncharted territory. As it becomes harder for middle-class workers in the county to afford housing, different approaches are needed, said County Executive Aaron Reardon.

Affordable housing is the most important social and economic issue for the county, he said in his remarks at the summit. The free Workforce Housing Summit drew about 100 people to the Lynnwood Convention Center, including representatives from local businesses, nonprofit organizations, the real estate industry and local government. Participants swapped business cards and ideas about how employers might help local workers afford a home.

Reardon announced two new programs for the some 3,000 county employees that would assist them with purchasing a home. The first, offered through Freddie Mac, a stockholder-owned corporation established by Congress to support home­ownership and rental housing, would provide down payment assistance, education, financial counseling and mortgage financing.

The second, offered through a nonprofit organization called Home for Good based in Edmonds, would offer a two-year, lease-to-own program and home­ownership counseling.

County employees will be able to access both programs through the county’s Intranet site, and the county’s human resource department also will offer classes to educate county employees about homeownership.

Workers who own homes offer benefits for employers, including a “loyal, stable and appreciative” work force, said Craig Nickerson, a vice president for Freddie Mac. Indeed, offering down payment assistance or counseling could serve as a recruiting tool, giving companies a competitive edge.

Studies show workers trust their employers as a source of information, Nickerson said. He predicts the way people get into homes is going to change and employers will likely play a central role.

Panel experts suggested ideas that included having employers offer down payment assistance and financial seminars; connecting employees with lenders that could offer low-interest and fixed-rate loans and offering individual development accounts, a matching savings account.

United Way of Snohomish County already offers an individual development accounts initiative that allow those in the program to have the money they set aside matched. So far about a dozen people in the county have put the money toward buying homes, starting small businesses and continuing their education.

Employers who can’t pony up cash can still find low-cost ways to help their employees with housing. For instance, Nickerson said employers can serve as a “trusted intermediary” who can connect employees with real estate agents, reputable mortgage brokers and nonprofit housing organizations, as well as provide financial counseling or other educational opportunities.

Even though home prices have softened in the last few months, the median price of a home still far exceeds median income, and the gap is even wider for first-time buyers, said Nathan Gorton of the Camano Island Snohomish County Realtors Association.

That disparity makes it more difficult to attract and retain quality employees.

He said real estate agents are telling him that many people could afford the monthly mortgage payments on a home but don’t make enough to save for a down payment or come up with the closing costs.

Reporter Debra Smith: 425-339-3197 or dsmith@heraldnet.com.