By Allison Carney

If everything goes as planned, I will become a first time home-buyer by the end of next year - thanks to CEA’s new Mortgage Assistance Program (Woo Hoo)!

Gary Shaprio, our President and CEO, announced at an all-staff meeting that each employee was eligible to receive $25,000 in the form of a three year forgivable loan, to be used toward a house down-payment. Well, I’ll tell you that my stomach did a little flip flop right then and there. He continued that the loan could be applied toward any house in Arlington County (where our company headquarters are) to promote employees living closer to work.

I have been scrounging pennies (OK, some nickels, dimes and dollars too) trying to save for a down-payment and this offer just lit up my heart, as I’m sure it did to many in the room. Through this new program, CEA is encouraging home ownership and a shorter commute; hence taking less from the environment and reducing commuter pollution.

CEA is at the forefront of a growing trend. According to the Society of Human Resource Managers (SHRM) Annual Benefits Survey, the number of employers offering employees down-payment assistance has significantly increased over the last seven years. Only three percent of all employers offered any sort of down-payment assistance in 2000, but as of 2007 it has increased to 11 percent.

I couldn’t be happier with this new employee benefit and personally know that people have already started to take advantage of it.

Let’s chat: What sort of stand-out benefits does your company offer?

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 30th, 2008 at 1:57 pm and is filed under CEA, Green CE. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.