Embargo Period

5-9-2019

Degree Name

MA in Sustainable Development

First Advisor

Bruce Dayton

Abstract

This study explores the changes of financial stability and quality of life of Cambodian immigrants and refugees in Lowell, Massachusetts as a result of their participation in a first-time homebuyer program. It also provides recommendations from the program participants about ways to improve the program for future program participants and tips for future program participants to get ready to purchase their first home. There were seventeen research participants. Fifteen of them were the program participants who completed the program. One of them was a program coordinator and the other one was a program implementer. Data were collected by two methods, a survey and interviews. Twelve of the program participants were requested to complete the survey and three were interviewed. The program coordinator and program implementer were also interviewed. The results of the study showed that the knowledge, skills, and assistances that the program offered to the participants resulted in noticeable changes in financial stability and quality of life. The study recommends the program to include the pros and cons of buying new and old home, to entail the costs of fixing different things in the house, to have a Khmer instructor to teach the program. It also recommends the future program participants to ask questions when they take the program, check conditions of the house that they are going to buy, be clear on how to buy a house, find the bank that offers low interest rate for mortgages, have a right team of professionals, have full commitment when they decide to buy a house, and take the first-time homebuyer program.

Keywords: Financial Stability and Quality of Life

Disciplines

Social and Behavioral Sciences

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