UCU Helps Member Utilize $30,000 in Grants to Purchase First Home

9/23/2025

If there’s one thing we absolutely love to do it’s helping our members, but we also love sharing our members’ success stories.

Kat recently closed on her first home, a brand-new house in the Bangor area. That alone is something to celebrate, but what makes this purchase even more special is that Kat is a first-time home buyer!

As a long time UCU member, Kat knew we could help her with her home loan. She learned during the home loan process that UCU has partnerships with the FHLB (Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston) and participates in offering it’s HOW Grant, an opportunity for qualifying borrowers to get $25,000 towards their home loan. That was in addition to the MSHA (Maine State Housing Authority) lender status UCU holds, and with Kat’s efforts in taking the first-time home buyer course at HoMEworks, she also earned a $5,000 credit towards her loan.

Kat (left) with Cory Broniarczyk

UCU Mortgage Loan Originator, Cory Broniarczyk worked with Kat throughout her mortgage application and when he called to tell her about the grant opportunities she knew nothing about, she was pleasantly surprised! The $25,000 HOW grant from the FHLB combined with the $5,000 Advantage Credit that Kat received for completing the HoMEworks First-Time Home Buyer Course helped Kat afford a large enough down payment to avoid Private Mortgage Insurance – saving her thousands of dollars over the course of the next several years and enabling her to buy her first home.

“Buying my first home with UCU was incredible!” Kat said. “They helped me through the process and assisted me in attaining grant money of $30,000, which made it so I did not have monthly private mortgage insurance payments on my loan. The care that Cory and UCU showed for me in helping me to get into my first home was wonderful.”

Kat is a first-time home buyer making her home ownership dreams come true by utilizing the home buying resources available to her. If you’re a first-time home buyer, let us help you utilize the programs and resources available to you. Reach out to our experienced lending team today!