Meet Cris and Koren

Cris is a true local, spending his youth in San Carlos and Belmont. His family still resides in San Mateo; he lived with them for three years after completing his undergraduate degree. Currently, he is a project manager with a computer gaming company in San Francisco.

Koren is from Hilo, Hawaii and met Cris when she was a post-doc at Stanford. She is currently a visiting professor in Biology and also tutors students at all levels in various subjects.

She and Cris recently married and started saving for a house. Last year, they were extremely grateful to find out about the HEART program, which allowed them to stay in the county as 1st time homebuyers. Even with a conforming mortgage loan from Meriwest Mortgage and the HEART downpayment loan, they rode the crazy rollercoaster that is the current housing market in the Peninsula. They bid on five homes in the past year, in many cases losing to buyers offering a minimum of $100,000 above asking price in cash. They were incredibly discouraged.

When a townhouse in San Carlos came on the market, they rushed to make an offer on the property. Both were elated to be accepted for their first home after a week of tense waiting.

“Being local and growing up here, I really appreciate the chance to live in San Carlos and spend more time in the community. With rents now approaching $3,000 for a two-bedroom apartment, our mortgage is less and we can start our lives here. I take BART to my job in the city, and Koren is teaching at several sites in the Peninsula. We couldn’t be happier. Thank you HEART.”