Estimating Economic Impacts of Community Lending

J. Michael Collins, Eric Belsky, Micky Tripathi

W99-7: This paper provides a step-by-step approach to understanding and estimating the economic benefits of helping lower-income households buy and own their first home. The economic benefits of services provided by community-based nonprofit organizations, such as prepurchase education, affordable home financing, and post-purchase assistance, are explained. A reproducible methodology is described that organizations can use to estimate the approximate value of the economic benefits associated with their activities. Although not a measure of net benefits that account for offsetting costs, the methodology described here gives nonprofit organizations an important tool that helps demonstrate their value to their business partners, government, and the public…