MoCaFi Launches One-Stop App To Help Black Americans Become Homeowners

Hoping to assist in closing the racial wealth gap, Mobility Capital Finance Inc. is offering a new one-stop personal finance app to help Black Americans buy their first home.

Calling itself a financial platform for economic empowerment, the firm, known as MoCaFi, is uniting with FinLocker and TransUnion to launch the Blueprint app. It allows people to monitor their assets and liabilities, simulate steps to gain a strong credit score, and create a favorable financial profile to obtain a mortgage.

Per a news release, the app is geared to help would-be wealth-builders improve their spending, budgeting, credit health, financial knowledge, and gain access to capital. People can use the app to build credit, connect to their bank account to manage finances, reduce debt, and create budgets. The app can help users save for a down payment and closing costs and track their progress to become mortgage-ready.

The app’s timing is perhaps fitting, given buying a home remains a challenge for many people of color. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the homeownership rate for Black households was just 43.1% in the fourth quarter of 2021. That rate compares to 74.4% for white households.

Wole Coaxum, the founder and CEO of MoCaFi, spoke about the alliance with FinLocker and TransUnion.

“Through our partnership, we will empower customers with the financial tools and educational resources to improve consumers’ financial literacy and prepare them to qualify for a mortgage. As a result, we are giving all Americans an opportunity to achieve the dream of homeownership.”

MoCaFi reported it’s also partnering with top mortgage lenders to offer first-time home mortgage aid to eligible Blueprint by MoCaFi customers. New homeowners can keep using the app to check their home’s value and equity and maintain credit and positive financial habits to become successful homeowners.

Brian Vieaux, president and COO at FinLocker, added, “FinLocker and TransUnion’s partnership with MoCaFi aims to address the disparity in wealth and access to financial services of underserved consumers with the convenience of a mobile app that will guide them on a personalized path to become successful homeowners.”

Joe Mellman, senior vice president and mortgage business leader at TransUnion, said, “By providing more transparency around the conditions typically required by loan originators, better financial literacy on building credit and offering access to tools that share greater insight into individual mortgage readiness, together we can better assist more consumers on their path to successfully buying a home.”