After 20 years of supporting her family by training and racing horses, Pat Smith was stricken with spinal meningitis. She lay in a coma for ten days, and when she was well enough to go home, she found that her business had been liquidated by her husband. They divorced and Pat started working to rebuild her life.

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2007 Survey respondant list.

Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) are matched savings accounts that enable low-income American families to save, build assets, and enter the financial mainstream. IDAs reward the monthly savings of working-poor families who are building towards purchasing an asset - most commonly buying their first home, paying for post-secondary education, or starting a small business. IDAs make it possible for low-income families to build the financial assets they need to achieve the American Dream.

The match incentive - similar to an employer match for 401(k) contributions - is provided through a variety of government and private sector sources. Organizations that operate IDA programs often couple the match incentive with financial literacy education, training to purchase their asset, and case management.

This site exists to provide basic information on

• starting and operating an IDA program,
• resources and support services available to IDA practitioners,
• federal policy that will take IDAs to scale,
• new research on IDAs and asset building, and
• events for the entire field.

As an IDA practitioner, you can use these resources to exchange information and ideas about how to best structure IDA initiatives and policies that enable low-income families and individuals to save, build wealth, and contribute to the nation's continued economic growth.

While this site is targeted to the immediate needs of IDA practitioners, it can also be a useful resource for other community economic development professionals, accountholders, financial institution representatives, federal and state policy makers, legislative staff, social policy researchers, press members, and others who share a commitment to expanding opportunities for low-income families to build financial and human capital.

This work is led by Rochelle Watson.

How can I open an IDA account for myself?

Basic questions about IDAs are answered in this 4-page Fact Sheet. (Also available in Spanish)

If you wish to open an IDA account, you will need to locate an IDA program near you. You can search for programs by state using the online IDA Directory.

In February 2008, CFED informally surveyed 27 Individual Development Account (IDA) programs around the country about the state of the homeowners who had purchased homes through their programs in the past five years.

Of the 1,212 IDA savers who purchased a home in the past five years, programs estimated that the majority (perhaps as high as 85% overall, but 97% or more in two-thirds of the programs) were able to get conventional, fixed-rate mortgages.

IDA Program Survey on Homeownership and Foreclosure

Affordable Home Ownership Done Right