SOUTHERN BANK AND FREDDIE MAC BRING GET THE FACTS! HOMEOWNERSHIP WORKSHOPS TO EASTERN NORTH CAROLINA

$30,000 Presented to Six Local Organizations

Southern Bank and Freddie Mac are pleased to announce that they are working with six local community organizations to implement informative workshops that demystify the homeownership process for families in 10 eastern North Carolina counties. The Get the Facts! workshops are designed to break down barriers of misinformation that keep many individuals from considering homeownership. Freddie Mac and Southern Bank on Dec. 15 presented a $30,000 check to the organizations listed below to fund the workshops.

Beginning in 2007 and continuing through the end of 2008, the Get the Facts! workshops will be conducted by Southwest Alliance Neighborhood Empowerment, New Life Community Development Corporation (CDC), Choanoke Area Development Association, Rocky Mount Edgecombe CDC, North Carolina Fund for Development and Rebuilding Broken Places. Workshops will be conducted in the counties of Beaufort, Washington, Northampton, Hertford, Halifax, Bertie, Nash, Edgecombe, Pitt and Wayne.

Through the Get the Facts workshops, these organizations will provide straightforward information and advice about all aspects of homeownership, including costs associated with homebuying and credit history requirements. For example, a 20 percent down payment and perfect credit are no longer the industry standards for getting a mortgage.

"Southern Bank is pleased to be a part of this affordable housing initiative," said Robert Shepherd, Senior Vice President and Community Reinvestment Officer with Southern Bank. "It represents an opportunity for low to moderate income people to become smarter home buyers by participating in the workshop and learning valuable information regarding down payments, closing cost financial assistance and affordability. Families with limited incomes can overcome obstacles and become owners of decent, safe and affordable homes."

Shepherd said that targeted groups of the program include highly skilled workers such as teachers, police officers and firefighters, as well as workers such as machine and vehicle operators, material movers, food service workers, secretaries and the like.

"The strength of this educational campaign is the many public and private organizations working together in the community to address the barriers faced by homebuyers," said Craig Nickerson, vice president of Freddie Mac. "Freddie Mac is pleased to be working with Southern Bank and these grassroots organizations to reach people who may be facing obstacles to buying a home."

Freddie Mac, one of the nation's largest residential mortgage investors, created the Get the Facts! workshops. Research conducted by Freddie Mac in 2003 suggests that reliable, accurate information about homebuying may not be reaching minority communities. The research uncovered several common misconceptions about homebuying among African Americans and Latinos. For example, about half of African Americans and Latinos believe that they need a 20 percent down payment to buy a home, and that they need almost perfect credit to get a loan. In addition, more than half of African Americans and Latinos believe that they must have the same job for at least three years to get a loan.

Freddie Mac is a stockholder-owned company established by Congress in 1970 to support homeownership and rental housing. Freddie Mac fulfills its mission by purchasing residential mortgages and mortgage-related securities, which it finances primarily by issuing mortgage-related securities and debt instruments in the capital markets. Over the years, Freddie Mac has made home possible for one in six homebuyers and more than four million renters in America.

Founded in 1901, Southern Bank is a wholly owned subsidiary of Southern BancShares (N.C.), Inc. With total assets of $1.1 billion, the bank operates 56 branches in 52 communities in eastern North Carolina. More information about the Bank is available on the Internet at www.southernbank.com.

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