Secretary Raymond Skinner unveiled a new look, a redesigned website and even a new way of talking about the state’s flagship homeownership program during DHCD’s annual Maryland Mortgage Program Top Lenders Award breakfast on Tuesday, February 18, 2014.
The annual breakfast recognizes members of the Maryland Mortgage Program’s lender network for outstanding performance. This year’s recipients included first place winner First Home Mortgage Corp.; second place winner Carrollton Mortgage Services; third place winner Wells Fargo Home Mortgage; and Rising Star award winner PrimeLending. The ceremony at DHCD’s Crownsville headquarters each February coincides with the launch of the home buying season in Maryland.
This year, Secretary Skinner told the lenders and realtors in attendance that DHCD wants to double the number of Maryland Mortgage Program loans from 1,500 in 2013 to 3,000 by 2015. To facilitate this, the agency has redesigned its website to make it more accessible to the public and to utilize the responsive design elements of the state’s Maryland.gov website. The Maryland Mortgage Program website launches on March 3, 2014.
The new Maryland Mortgage Program logo features a stylistic swoosh of the state flag and the slogan “Invest in Home. Invest in You.”
The website and a new marketing campaign will emphasize the key benefits of the program: significant down payment assistance, 30-year, fixed mortgages and homebuyer education, said DHCD Marketing Manager Tim Pinel. The program will even adopt a new way of talking about itself, so that marketing materials sound less bureaucratic and more user-friendly.