A veteran of the mortgage lending industry in Missoula received top honors from a nonprofit lending organization this month for her work to connect Montana homebuyers with a down payment assistant program.

MoFi, which operates the HomeNow program, named Julie Lapham a Top Producer for her work to connect buyers with the organization's loan assistance, itself an effort to increase Montanan's access to home ownership.

Lapham works at Mann Mortgage in Missoula.

“Today’s buyers are some of the savviest I’ve seen,” Lapham said in a statement. “They’re doing the research, watching the market, taking homebuyer classes, checking their credit. But as much as they prepare and save, a lot of them still reach a point where they fall short on down payment funds.”

Through the HomeNow program, buyers can work with a participating lender to access assistance, which comes in the form of a grant or 0-percent interest on a deferred loan.

Buyers also can receive up to 5 percent of the total loan amount. It can be placed towards both the down payment and closing costs. The program is not limited to first-time homebuyers.

“Down payments remain one of the largest hurdles to home ownership in Montana,” said Dave Glaser, President of MoFi. “Many would-be buyers have steady jobs and decent credit, but haven’t been able to save enough.”

Since the program’s inception in late 2016, MoFi has provided more than $1.7 million in down payment assistance across Montana, supporting over $43 million in home purchases.

Since 2016, Lapham has helped more than 30 Montanans with over $330,000 in down payment assistance, which resulted in over $8.2 million in mortgages, according to MoFi.

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