A House That Waited for Us

When we moved to State College we first lived in an apartment on West College Avenue. We were told about a program of the Farm Home Administration program of the US Department of Agriculture, which helped people of low income in rural areas to buy or build a home, of modest size, so that everyone wouldn’t move to the big cities. When we went to the Farm Home office to apply, we were told we needed to live in the area first for at least 6 months to establish a permanent residency here.

Soon afterward I saw an ad on a campus bulletin board for someone wanting to sell their FmHA house. Curious to at least see what one of these houses was like, Barb and I arranged to go to see it. For varying reasons, Barb and I both felt it would be a perfect house for us. Barb told her mom about the house, and she and her friends started to pray that we would get it. But someone else had already applied with FmHA to buy out the mortgage from the original owners.

So, we went on with life. A few months later Barb’s parents came to visit us and, in showing them around town, we took them to see the house. We were very surprised to find that the house was still vacant, with a realtor’s sign in the front yard. On contacting the original owner, we learned that the couple who had applied with FMHA to get the house had been disqualified for the FMHA program for having an income too high. Meanwhile, the original owner had found a teaching job at a university in New York City and had moved out of the house. Foolishly, he thought he would not need to continue making mortgage payments if he was not living at the house. But FmHA knew he now had a well-paying job, and had recently sent him a bill for many months of unpaid mortgage. They gave him the choice of moving back into the house and paying the back-mortgage payments, or he could sign a paper giving the house back to FmHA, having his debt to them forgiven, but also losing any proceeds from the resale of the house.

I had called him just when he was considering those options. He was deciding to sign the paper and give the house back to FmHA. I called FmHA, they allowed us to apply for their program, and two weeks later (a process that normally would take 6 months to a year) they contacted us to ask how soon we could move in!

So, in April, 1983, we moved into the house where we have lived ever since. Two months later our first son, Stephen, was born.

​

​