Stan and Anne Pitts bought their Anchorage home using an Alaska Housing Finance Corporation (AHFC) veterans’ loan in 2007. Stan’s 25-year military career in the Navy and both the Alabama and the Texas Air National Guard has taken him all over the world. He served in Vietnam and Operation Desert Storm. Because of his appreciation for this program for veterans, Stan appeared in AHFC’s informational TV and print ads regarding Proposition A. The proposition allows AHFC to sell tax-exempt bonds to fund this service for those who have served our country.
AHFC traces its origins back to territorial days. Following the end of WWII, the federal government began allocating money for urban renewal projects to provide housing for returning soldiers and their families. Today, Alaska is home to 75,000 veterans, and in a recent election, voters were asked to continue the Veterans Mortgage Program by authorizing AHFC to issue up to $600 million of state-guaranteed bonds for home loans for veterans.
The voters decided by an overwhelming majority to continue the program. The Veterans Mortgage Program offers a lower interest rate than the conventional single-family mortgage loan program. To qualify, veterans must have completed their initial tour of duty and apply within 25 years of discharge from active duty service.
A proposition for veterans’ bonds was last on the general election ballot in 2002. More than 70 percent of Alaskans voted in favor of the program at the time. Without this additional infusion of funds approved in 2010, AHFC estimated it would have run out of funds in 2011. In 2009, AHFC provided home loans for 214 veterans using $60 million under the Veterans Mortgage Program.
To learn more about the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation, please visit their website.
Watch Stan and his family in their ad for Alaska Proposition A.
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