The city just built a mortgage. I was grateful to be in the room.

Last week I sat in a boardroom at PHDC with a small group of bankers — and Mayor Cherelle Parker sat down right next to me for the entire meeting.

Not a photo op. Not a press conference. A working session about a mortgage product the City of Philadelphia is actually bringing to market. And as the only independent mortgage banker at that table — the only non-bank in the room — I felt the weight of that seat. Somebody had to represent the lenders who live and die on service, speed, reliability and getting regular Philadelphians to the closing table. That is mortgage banking of the people!

Here's what I can tell you: One Philly Mortgage is real, it's coming, and it's the first program of its kind launched by a city.

What is One Philly Mortgage?

Massachusetts has run something very similar through MassHousing for years — but that's a state program. This one belongs to Philadelphia. Built for Philadelphians, funded by Philadelphians, closing in Philadelphia zip codes only.

The concept is simple and powerful: the City partners with local lenders and uses public funds to buy down a portion of the interest — along with other subsidies — so first-time homebuyers get a below-market 30-year fixed rate they could never access on the open market. Layer on the rest of the structure and this thing gets serious fast.

Here's what was shared in the room (final guidelines are being locked down now, so treat these as the framework):

• Sales price cap of $450,000
• 3% down — no 20% myth here
• NO mortgage insurance — none, zero, gone
• Subsidized below-market 30-year fixed rates — a portion of the interest paid by the City
• Income limits up to 120% of Area Median Income — working and middle-class Philadelphians qualify
• Stackable with down payment assistance programs — layer DPA on top and as little as 1.5% of the purchase needs to come from the buyer's own funds

Read that list again. No PMI and a subsidized fixed rate and 3% down and you can stack assistance on top of it. For a first-time buyer in this city, that's not a discount — that's a different math problem entirely.

And the City built in what actually keeps people in their homes: pre- and post-purchase counseling through City-funded housing counseling agencies. Getting the keys is day one. Sustaining successful long-term homeownership is the mission.

Credit where it's due

Getting an actual mortgage product off the ground is hard. Rate sheets, servicing, lender agreements, counseling infrastructure, subsidy mechanics, compliance — every one of those is its own mountain. The teams at PHDC and across the City's housing agencies coordinated all of it, alongside local lenders, to bring this to the doorstep of launch. I don't care about politics — I care about Philadelphians getting keys. And the people doing this work are getting it done.

Why Philly Rate was in that room

Rate has already been on the ground with the City as one of the recommended lenders in the Turn the Key program — Mayor Parker's initiative putting first-time buyers into newly built homes on formerly vacant city land, with up to $75,000 in buydown assistance plus the $10,000 Philly First Home grant. We've had tremendous success getting Turn the Key buyers to the closing table, and that track record is exactly why we were at the table for what comes next.

I'm proud of that. Not just because it's good for business, but because programs like this only work when lenders show up for the borrowers the market usually overlooks.

What to do right now

One Philly Mortgage guidelines and the application process are being finalized. When they drop, I'll break down every detail — who qualifies, how the subsidy works, how to stack your assistance — right here and on our channels.

In the meantime:

1. Bookmark the official page: phdcphila.org/one-philly-mortgage-program
2. If you're not waiting, look at Turn the Key today: phdcphila.org/turnthekey
3. Start your homeownership counseling now — it's required for these programs, and the buyers who finish it early are the ones who win when inventory drops
4. Reach out. If you're a Philadelphian who's been told homeownership isn't for you, I want to hear from you first.

Philly built its own mortgage. First city in America to do it. And your Mortgage Banker of the People had a seat at the table.

Let's get you home.

— Jason Griesser, CMB
Mortgage Banker of the People | NMLS #137179