Standard & Poor’s Rating Service has once again affirmed West Virginia Housing Development Fund’s “AAA” issuer credit rating. The “AAA” qualification is Standard & Poor’s highest ranking and the Fund is the only state housing finance agency to receive an “AAA” rating.
“The Fund is truly doing great work for our state and I couldn’t be prouder of the staff,” said Gov. Jim Justice, who, in his role as governor, serves as Chairman of the Fund’s Board of Directors. “All the other good we’re doing here in West Virginia – investing in our tourism and businesses and so much more – is geared toward getting people to move here and live in paradise, but when they do, they’ll need a place to live. So the Fund is vitally important to help people live and work in our great state while also providing them that special feeling of having a place to call home.”
The rating service lauded the extremely high credit quality of the Fund’s asset base, the Fund’s ability to successfully meet its legislative mandate, the extensive experience of the Fund’s management and its conservative philosophy.
The report said, in part, “We believe WVHDF benefits from a very strong and experienced management team, which continues to succeed in meeting its mission to finance affordable housing for West Virginia residents, as demonstrated by the funding of single-family and multifamily programs from the WVHDF’s general reserves and earnings.”
The authors of the report also noted that the Fund has a “strong” relationship with the West Virginia Legislature and that the Fund’s Board of Directors provides “a great source of stability and depth of knowledge.”
“The ‘AAA’ rating is a testament to our staff and the great work they do. We understand our mission and take it to heart each and every day,” said Erica Boggess, the Fund’s Executive Director. “We remain the only state housing agency in the country to achieve and maintain an ‘AAA’ rating. That speaks volumes about their dedication. But more importantly, this rating further helps us do what we do best – help state residents make their dream of homeownership a reality.
“We are fortunate enough to serve a community that understands what it means to own a home,” Boggess continued. “We have faith in this state and its residents, and that faith is reflected in this rating. We are only as good as our clients, but, we’re lucky to have the best clients in the nation.”
The Huffington Post has also named West Virginia the best state for first-time homebuyers because of Fund mortgage programs.
Standard & Poor’s is the world’s foremost provider of independent credit ratings, indices, risk evaluation, investment research and data.
The West Virginia Housing Development Fund is a public body corporate and governmental instrumentality of the State of West Virginia, established to increase the supply of residential housing for persons and families of low and moderate income, and to provide construction and permanent mortgage financing to public and private sponsors of such housing. To date, the Housing Development Fund has issued more than $4.4 billion in bonds and has financed more than 122,000 housing units since it began operation in 1969. The West Virginia Housing Development Fund is an Equal Housing Opportunity Lender.
In March, another credit rating company – Moody’s – affirmed that the Fund had met the standards to receive a “Aaa” rating, which is Moody’s highest ranking. The WVHDF is the only state housing finance agency to receive that distinction.