Farmers & Merchants Bank of Long Beach : & Merchants Bank and Habitat for Humanity Welcome First Time Homebuyers to Their New Homes for the Holidays

Farmers & Merchants Bank (F&M Bank), proudly partnered with Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles to finance 6 first-time homeowners at the Long Beach Millennium Homes Project, with the goal of supplying affordable housing to families that were otherwise priced out of the market. Six out of the ten new Millennium Homes owners, who received the keys to their new homes this month, chose F&M Bank as their preferred lender.

Through a collaborative effort, Habitat LA works towards increasing the affordable housing stock in our community. Their homeownership program is designed to assist low-income first-time homebuyers to achieve the American dream of homeownership. Habitat homes are sold to partner homebuyers at no profit and financed with affordable loans. In addition to a 1% down payment and monthly mortgage payments, homeowners invest sweat equity hours building their future Habitat home and the homes of other Habitat Homebuyers, and complete a HUD-certified pre-purchase homebuyer education workshop.

F&M Bank has been working with Habitat LA towards partnership for this project since 2019. The home purchases were made possible through five layers of financing: F&M Bank's 1st mortgage, CalHome grants, The Long Beach Community Investment Company grants, Habitat LA loans, and FHLBank of San Francisco's AHP or WISH grants. F&M's program covered $7,000 of closing costs per home and offered a competitive 2.4% mortgage rate.

"We congratulate these new homeowners on this milestone occasion and we are grateful for the opportunity to help them achieve their dreams of homeownership just in time for the holidays," said Andrea Carlson, F&M Bank Vice President, Fair & Responsible Lending Officer. "Thank you to our friends at Habitat LA for navigating the channels to make this valuable program available to our community members."

On December 8th, Habitat LA broke ground on their next Washington Neighborhood project, the construction of an additional 38 homes in Long Beach. F&M's goal is to offer a similar product for this second project and partner to serve a majority of the 1st mortgage loans. These units will be built on 14th Street and Locust and will offer two and three bedroom homes.

About F&M Bank

Founded in Long Beach in 1907 by C.J. Walker, F&M Bank provides white-glove service to clients at 25 branches from San Clemente to Santa Barbara, as well as through Online and Mobile Banking platforms. The Bank offers commercial and small business banking, business loan programs, home loans, and a robust offering of consumer retail banking products, including checking, savings and youth accounts. F&M Bank is a California state-chartered bank with deposits insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (Member FDIC) and an Equal Housing Lender. NMLS #537388. For more information about F&M, please visit the website, www.FMB.com.