The New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority has announced their top ten lenders for 2007, and St. Mary’s Bank is ranked seventh among the 49 lenders who provide individual housing loans through the Authority. The ranking is based upon the number of loans that a lender has provided to first-time home buyers over the course of the year. This is the second year in a row that St. Mary’s Bank has been ranked in the top ten, having been ranked sixth in 2006.

Representatives from St. Mary’s were recognized at an annual banquet sponsored by New Hampshire Housing to honor the top ten lenders. “We make a big deal out of our top ten lenders,” says Elizabeth Lamoureux, Director of Home Ownership Programs for New Hampshire Housing, “because they do so much to help facilitate home ownership in New Hampshire.” Regarding St. Mary’s ranking, she says "The last year has been a challenging one in the mortgage market. St. Mary's Bank met that challenge by providing safe loan products for their first-time buyers and spending whatever time was needed to help them successfully realize the dream of home ownership."

“Staying among the top ten lenders for two years in a row is very gratifying,” says Barbara Cunningham, Vice President for Mortgage Services at St. Mary’s. “It represents a lot of hard work and it is the kind of work that we remain very committed to because providing affordable loans to first-time buyers has always been an important part of our mission at St. Mary’s, and is more important than ever in this centennial year of our founding.”

In addition to being honored, the top ten lenders at the NHHFA Banquet will be given a report card from the Housing Finance Authority, which will help them to understand how they can be even more effective. They will also be given the opportunity to offer input to New Hampshire Housing as to how the overall borrowing process can be improved for first-time buyers.

The forty-nine lenders who serve customers through New Hampshire Housing compete to be among the top ten in the Authority’s annual ranking. They are given a ranking each month and then an overall annual ranking. “To be among the top ten,” says Lamoureux, “means that these lenders are really taking the extra time with borrowers to help them settle into a loan and a home that they can safely afford.”