Minnesota Homeownership Center: How a Statewide Network was Created to Support Sustainable Homeownership for All

Affordable Housing Collaboration in Minnesota: Outcomes and Lessons Learned Series

In 1993, the Cities of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota Housing, and Family Housing Fund identified a missing link between existing homeownership outreach and mortgage financing: homebuyer education. In response, the four partners created the Minnesota Homeownership Center, an innovative nonprofit organization that coordinates a statewide network of homebuyer and homeowner services through partnerships with nonprofit and housing organizations, mortgage lenders, local governments, and real estate professionals. 

The Center improves quality control by providing ongoing training and verification on a standard curriculum of homebuyer education to counselors at partner organizations. It also provides outreach and centralized referral services to homebuyers, assembles comprehensive information about available services, maintains data on programs and participants, and provides funding to community-based counseling organizations. 

This program report describes Family Housing Fund’s involvement in the creation of the Homeownership Center, how the Center evolved over time, and the Center’s major accomplishments. Between 2001 and 2013, more than 24,000 households received personal pre-purchase counseling, and more than 10,000 households received post-purchase counseling. In that same time period, nearly 70,000 households received foreclosure prevention counseling and saved an estimated $2 billion for Minnesota communities through foreclosure prevention programs since 2008.