Proud Ground makes Beaverton home affordable for first-time buyers

ProudGroundhome.JPGView full sizeAfter searching for more than a year, Greg (left) and Patty Rodrigues moved into their new Beaverton townhouse on Wednesday.

For the longest time, owning a home was a far-fetched dream for the Rodrigueses.

Greg and Patty Rodrigues rented for two years in Milwaukie, never being able to afford the high down payments for a home on one income.

They sought help from the Portland nonprofit

, which makes buying a home affordable for qualified families with lower incomes.

After shopping around, the Rodrigueses finally picked their new dwelling: a brand-new townhouse in Beaverton, the nonprofit's first foray into Washington County. Proud Ground hopes to eventually expand the number up to four homes a year in the county.

Movers shuffled in boxes and furniture on Wednesday while the kids went to school. The parents, happy but exhausted, lounged in the kitchen, too tired to start unpacking.

"We absolutely love it here," said Patty Rodrigues, 40, a stay-at-home mom.

Two years ago, the family lived in the sweltering high desert heat of Yucca Valley, a small city just outside of Palm Springs in California.

They left the heavy traffic of the greater Los Angeles area for lush Oregon when Greg got a job as a surveillance technician for

, a Danish wind turbine company.

They hoped to settle down and stake roots for their two daughters, Kayla, 9, and Chloe, 6.

The couple happened to see a story about Proud Ground,

and successfully applied.

The nonprofit raises money, through public dollars and private fundraising, to offset the overall price of a home. Through a legal agreement, the house becomes part of the nonprofit's portfolio, so that when the house is sold, the price stays affordable for the next buyer in the program, according to Kathy Armstrong, deputy director of Proud Ground.

Participants have to meet certain criteria, such as making 80 percent or less of the median income in the area, having a steady job, keeping good credit and holding at least $2,000 of savings in the bank. They receive big benefits for being in the program, such as paying 15 to 30 percent less in property taxes and putting $500 to $1,000 down for the home.

Greg and Patty Rodrigues said they applied because they couldn't afford the 20 percent down payment that banks were requiring for a home costing about $200,000.

"There's a lot of anxiety into buying a house," Greg Rodrigues, 50, said. "Proud Ground made that anxiety less. They equip you with all these tools."

For more than a year, the couple put in bids for houses in Southeast Portland. They weren't too picky, just hoping for maybe a ranch-style house, three bedrooms, two bathrooms.

"Just enough room for us and the kids," Greg said.

Through Proud Ground, they eventually found a home at a market rate of $199,050, subsidized by $57,000 in federal funds distributed by the city of Beaverton and $15,000 from the nonprofit. The Rodrigueses now have a $127,050 mortgage.

Their new home in Beaverton is not too different than originally imagined, with three bedrooms, and it's near good schools, they said. Their two daughters enrolled in

, a charter school in the

with a Spanish language immersion program.

"It was so difficult to teach it (at home), and so now that's going to be a dream come true," said Patty Rodrigues, who speaks Spanish.

Patty Rodrigues volunteers much of her time at her children's school. Her presence at home has made a big difference in their children's upbringing, she said.

"I just want it to be a home for my kids, a refuge, a place where they can hang out and our friends can hang out too," Rodrigues said.