Want a House as a Wedding Gift?

With Utah County holding the record for marriage licenses each year, I’m surprised more young couples aren’t asking for a house! 

There is a little-known HUD program that allows couples, graduates and expectant parents to amass cash gifts from friends and family into a down payment on an FHA mortgage.  Tara-Nicholle Nelson tells us about this HUD program.

“When I told my father I was getting married, he wrote me a check and said: “If you use this on a wedding, it’ll be the last check I ever write you.” And with that, I drew up a guest list of about seven people and used the money for the down payment on my first home. This, at a time when my friends were routinely dropping six figures on weddings with 200 or 300 attendees.

Apparently, the federal government has long, if quietly, tried to help newlyweds-to-be take a similar course, facilitating the application of their families’ wedding gifts toward their down payments via the FHA Bridal Registry Program. With home prices as low as they are today and down payment assistance programs scarce, it would seem that many a newlywed would rather have 100 $100 gifts (which would make the FHA required 3.5 percent down payment on a $275,000 home) than have 100 items like blenders, dust ruffles and knife sets they’ll have to put in storage until they can scrape up the cash to move out of their apartment.

The FHA Bridal Registry works like a traditional registry but is even more flexible. The bride and groom visit their choice of FHA mortgage lenders and set up what is essentially a custodial savings account for the dedicated purpose of funding their down payment. Then they provide the details to friends and family. In turn, the couple’s benefactors can deposit funds directly into the account, or can simply hand cash or checks to the couple for deposit into the account.”

Sounds like a great idea to me!  Call me if there is a wedding in your future and let’s get this started.