If you’re looking for a new house in an area surrounding the University, a new Web site can help you immensely.
Just a quick click to the Washington University Employer Assisted Housing Program’s site — eahp.wustl.edu — can send you on your way into a new home.
Established in 1997, the program aims to permanently stabilize the Forest Park Southeast, Skinker-DeBaliviere, Northeast University City and (portions of the) West End neighborhoods by offering forgivable loans to eligible employees and full-time graduate students.
“Since the launch of the program in 1997, Washington University has invested approximately $200,000 toward the program, and there have been 56 participants to purchase approximately $7 million in housing,” program administrator Karen Robinson said. “We would like to see the number of participants increase.”
Which is why the Web site was unveiled. Previously, everything was done by hand and by word-of-mouth.
“We were manually assembling information packets and mailing them,” Robinson said. “This new Web site will result in a huge cost and time savings. We will no longer incur the cost of printing marketing materials and postage to mail them.
“While conducting an assessment of the marketing for the EAHP, we discovered that many people weren’t aware of it. Word about the program was either word-of-mouth or referrals from previous participants.
“While designing the Web site, our focus was to make sure that a person could easily navigate through the Web site and receive concise information.”
The program works like this: Employees who purchase a house as a primary residence in one of the eligible neighborhoods will receive the lesser of 5 percent of the home’s purchase price or $4,000 to be used for points, closing costs, or down payment assistance toward the purchase of the house.
The loan is then forgiven if the employee remains in the home for five years.
This, plus much more information, is laid out in a simple way on the Web site.
“The new site is accessible to everyone, including current and prospective lenders and real estate agents,” Robinson said. “Employees can now access information regarding this benefit just as well as the other benefits available to them via the Washington University Web site.
“Another benefit to having the site is that employees are able to preview a sample of the housing stock available in the approved neighborhoods with links to get maps.
“This is especially beneficial to prospective employees or graduate students from other states who are considering Washington University and want information about neighborhoods. The Web site will also assist us in compiling more-accurate data for special reports by tracking the number of visitors to the site.”