GE Mortgage Insurance Teams With Delta Sigma Theta to Advance African American Homeownership
09-09-2003
RALEIGH -- GE Mortgage Insurance announced today that it was teaming with Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, the nation's largest African American sorority, in an effort to help close the homeownership gap between African Americans and the U.S. population as a whole. The "Delta Homeownership Initiative" will focus on providing members of Delta Sigma Theta, their families and friends with the tools and information they need to become homeowners.
As part of the effort, GE will work with local and state chapters of the sorority to provide training and coaching on all aspects of homeownership and the home buying process, including information on how mortgage insurance can help qualified prospective homeowners purchase homes sooner with down payments of as little as three percent, or even less.
"With homeownership at an all time high in this country, only about 47 percent of African Americans live in a home they own. That's about 20 points below the rate for the population as a whole," said Lori Jones Gibbs, director -- Affordable Housing/Emerging Markets for GE Mortgage Insurance and a member of Delta Sigma Theta. "As one of the nation's leading mortgage insurers, GE wants to change that. We're proud to work with Delta Sigma Theta to educate people about the home buying process so that they can break the rental cycle and start building equity through ownership."
As part of the effort, Delta Theta Sigma has issued "The Delta Challenge," a nationwide competition in which all regions and chapters will compete to see which can help get the most new home loans closed in the one- year period ending June 30, 2004. Winners will be recognized during the Delta Sigma Theta 2004 National Convention.
"African Americans are missing out on a brighter financial future by not taking full advantage of one of the most powerful tools for wealth accumulation available to them," said Gwendolyn Boyd, president of Delta Sigma Theta. "We're very happy to be teaming with GE Mortgage Insurance to help our sisters and others break the rental cycle and create a personal homeownership plan. We want to show them how the home they've dreamed of could become a reality."
The Delta Homeownership Initiative will use trained Delta Sigma Theta volunteer "coaches" to reach out to and educate interested homeowner prospects in conjunction with local real estate professionals who agree to participate in the effort. In addition, information on the home buying process and lender products will be available through the Delta national website,
www.deltasigmatheta.org, and the GE Mortgage Insurance consumer website,
www.GEhomenow.com.
Delta Sigma Theta Sorority is a private, non-profit organization whose purpose is to provide services and programs to promote human welfare. Founded on January 13, 1913 at Howard University, it has a membership of over 200,000 predominately African-American, college-educated women. The Sorority currently has 900-plus chapters located in the United States, Tokyo, Japan, Okinawa, Japan, Germany, Bermuda, the Bahamas, Seoul, Korea, and St. Thomas and St Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Its major programs focus on Economic Development, Educational Development, International Awareness and Involvement, Physical and Mental Health and Political Awareness and Involvement.
GE Mortgage Insurance (web site
www.gemortgageinsurance.com) is part of GE Insurance, a global family of insurance and reinsurance businesses with $13.6 billion in premiums and assets of $188 billion. GE Insurance provides life insurance, retirement income products, property and casualty insurance, risk prevention services, mortgage insurance, and selective financial guarantee insurance. GE Insurance is part of General Electric Company, a diversified services, technology and manufacturing company with operations worldwide.
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