HousingWireHousingWire
New York-based Roam, a platform for purchasing a home with an assumable low-rate mortgage included, announced on Wednesday that it has secured $11.5 million in Series A funding led by Keith Rabois of Khosla Ventures, who is a co-founder of Opendoor.
The announcement from Roam confirmed that Founders Fund also participated in the funding round, and that Rabois and fellow Opendoor co-founder Eric Wu are joining Roam’s board.
The funding will aid Roam’s expansion to 70% of the U.S. This company aims to allow homebuyers to get an interest rate below 5%, reducing their monthly payments and “giving them up to an additional $150,000 of purchasing power on their home.”
Over the past 12 months, Roam has grown by 500% and registered 200,000 buyers looking for a more affordable way to buy a house. It has expanded to major cities like Atlanta, Denver and Houston.
“Assumable mortgages are the #1 non-inflationary lever that should be pulled over the next four years to make housing more affordable,” Rabois said in a statement. “There is no other option to address this generational crisis of housing affordability. Roam gives Americans the tools to save themselves from the increasing disconnect between what families can afford and what the median home sells for in this market.”
Assumable mortgages let buyers take over a seller’s loan, with Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and Veterans Affairs (VA) loans — about one-third of all U.S. mortgages — eligible by law. Roam enables a 5% down payment and a blended 5% rate, the sweet spot for many buyers, while cutting the typical closing time to 45 days instead of 150.
“Roam exists to bring a tangible solution to aspiring home buyers and sellers looking to move on to their next chapter,” Roam CEO Raunaq Singh said. “Sellers are stuck at home waiting for viable offers, and buyers are desperate to find a more affordable way to purchase a home in a world where affordability keeps slipping further away.
“Roam unlocks the opportunity to make monthly payments affordable again. It’s like getting in a time machine and going back to 2021.”
