MAGNA, Utah — A Magna couple is celebrating a major milestone after receiving a $10,000 grant from the Salt Lake Board of Realtors that helped them buy their first home.
“I just wanted her to have a home, to grow in a home, to be able to play outside,” said Elisabeth Mota, age 22.
Mota and her husband, Isaias Calderon, 24, are one of 25 families who are receiving the American Dream Grant this year. The program, which started in 2019 by the Salt Lake Board of Realtors, helps first-time homebuyers cover down payments or closing costs. The program gives grants to qualified applicants through a lottery system.
Mota, who works as an operator for a medical device company, and Calderon, who works as an associate at a warehouse, said they were outgrowing their apartment after giving birth to their 9-month-old daughter, Lilia. So, they started saving up money for a home back in November.
“We weren’t even sure if we were going to be able to afford a house or buy anytime soon,” Mota said outside of their new home in Magna. “We were struggling to collect the whole down payment.”
They eventually started working with a realtor and began their search for a home. That’s when their realtor encouraged them to apply for the American Dream Grant. Then, earlier this year, the couple received the news they had been chosen.
“One day she just called me and let us know that we were the winners,” Mota said. "I was just screaming in the car and felt super grateful and excited.”
Laura Fidler, a realtor with Summit Sotheby’s, said the program exists because buying a home has become more difficult in recent years.
“In the course of six years, home prices have gone up. Interest rates have gone up. It does make getting into a home harder,” Fidler explained.
She said the program usually gets around 100 applicants or more each year. She and other realtors started the program back in 2019.
"As home prices were rising, it was just becoming unaffordable for a lot of people to get into homes,” she explained. "It’s because of the goals that we all have for home ownership for first-time buyers. We know that having a home provides so much stability for families. It makes communities better. It helps young families establish wealth.”
For Mota and Calderon, the house already means a chance to build a future together.
“When I saw the house too, I was like, ‘This is the one,’” Mota said. “I was like, ‘I can see myself growing our kids here, getting old here.’"
This year, 25 families will receive $10,000 grants to help cover down payments or closing costs, according to Fidler.
“I feel like it’s super nice to be able to grow up in just one home, your whole childhood,” Mota said. “Have that one place where you can just say, ‘Hey, I grew up there my whole life, I was at that house.’”
