Mexican Mortgages (Hipotecaria Mexicana) announced that the banking institutions BBVA, Bancomer and the National Mortgages will offer mortgage credit to immigrants from Puebla who live and work in the United States. Through the program “Your Mexican Option,” these mortgages can be used to purchase homes in Puebla valued up to 1.750 million pesos (about $162,790.00).

The agreement, called the Immigrant Housing Project, was signed on August 10 by the Puebla Housing Institute, the State Commission for Immigrant Assistance, and the Puebla delegation of the National Chamber for Housing and Development, in the presence of representatives from the Pueblan State Government, and National Mortgages, which has a presence in New York City.

National Mortgages announced that through “Your Mexican Option,” immigrant families from Puebla would be able to make the dream of owning their own home a reality.

The mortgage credit, in Mexican pesos with a fixed interest rate and fixed monthly payments, can be applied to new or previously inhabited houses or apartments.

BBVA, Bancomer, and National Mortgages will loan 90 percent of the property’s value, offering terms of five to 25 years for loan repayment. This mortgage has the advantage that recipients can make additional unscheduled payments without penalty, or that recipients can even cash out the equity when they wish.

Another advantage of “Your Mexican Option” is that the monthly payment includes three insurance policies: life insurance, disability insurance and insurance against property damage.

It is calculated that nearly 2.5 million Mexicans from Puebla live and work in the United States, with around 80 percent of them concentrated in New York. The New York Puebla community sent $956 million to its home state in 2004, a quantity that puts them in fifth place for funds sent to Mexico, after U.S. communities from Michoacán, Guanajuato, Jalisco and the State of Mexico (surrounding Mexico City).