Financing program can help employees buy new homes

The University has initiated a financing program to assist eligible faculty and staff members in purchasing single-family homes in the new Plaisance Place development. The 50-home development, designed in the Prairie School style of architecture, is located 100 yards from campus in the area bounded by 61st and 62rd streets and Dorchester and Ellis avenues.

Eligible University employees will be able to secure second mortgages to cover 2 percent of the purchase price and the expenses of closing costs for homes in the Plaisance Place development. The financing program is available to University employees with family incomes not exceeding $54,700.

An employee who purchases a Plaisance Place home through the special financing program could receive 95 percent of the purchase price through a fixed or adjustable-rate first mortgage from a local bank with a 3 percent down payment. The remaining 2 percent of the purchase price could come from the second mortgage provided by the University, and the University would also lend the amount necessary for closing costs.

The quality single-family homes have a base price of $140,000. The first site in the development is a cluster of eight homes with a private drive and security-gate access for both cars and pedestrians. Each of the three-story, 1,875-square-foot homes will have three bedrooms, two baths and unfinished space suitable for another room and a third bathroom. The first house in the development is a model home located at the corner of Greenwood Avenue and 61st Street, across the street from the Law School.

Plaisance Place is a joint venture of the not-for-profit, community-based Woodlawn Preservation & Investment Corporation (WPIC) and Thrush Companies, a private developer. The University guaranteed a loan to WPIC to enable the organization to initiate the project and to be an equal partner with Thrush Companies.

For more information about the University's assistance plan, call Rose Dyrud, Supervisor of Housing Services, at 702-3420.

A visit to the model may be arranged by contacting sales agents Pam Sims and Lorie James at 363-1581.