Last month, nearly 70 people poured into two classrooms in Dorchester on a warm Saturday morning. What motivates so many people to give up a precious summer weekend day to learn more about homeownership?

Some would say fear and self-interest. That is a powerful combination in this post-subprime lending period that has led non-profits around Massachusetts to report growing demand for homebuyer education classes. The existence of these classes is still a secret to far too many Massachusetts homebuyers. If attendance at one of these comprehensive, multi-session classes had been mandatory over the past five years, it is safe to say that Massachusetts would have escaped relatively unscathed from the subprime mortgage crisis.

The unbiased education received by prospective buyers gives them the tools to decide if homeownership is right for them and helps them choose a good, affordable and sustainable mortgage product. Graduates of non-profit homebuyer education programs stay out of trouble in much greater numbers than their fellow homebuyers who opted to do it on their own or trust the wrong lender.

In the recent edition of the journal Shelterforce, Dorchester’s Roslyn George is profiled as an example of what graduates of homebuying classes can learn. George took a homebuyer class – not once, but twice. She first took a class in 2001 when she knew she was many years away from homeownership and then she signed up again in 2005 to stay current about good and bad lenders – and good and bad mortgage products. “You may think you know enough, but when you get to one of those classes, it’s an eye-opener,” says George.

No Urgency

Unfortunately, market forces too often conspire to de-emphasize the importance of homebuyer education. Mayor Menino and Governor Patrick provide incentives for homebuyer education by making these vital classes a pre-requisite for accessing affordable mortgages like the SoftSecond loan program or downpayment and closing cost assistance. However Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, before government conservatorship, were moving away from requiring counseling for a number of their mortgage programs. As Congress considers legislation to create a new Fannie and Freddie, lawmakers should consider the role these government-sponsored enterprises can play when secondary market policies support high-quality homebuyer education and their purchases help banks pump more low-cost fixed rate, sustainable loans into the economy.

Based on numbers collected by the Massachusetts Homeownership Collaborative, approximately 10,000 homebuyers attend a class each year in our state. In 2007, there were almost 63,000 home purchase mortgages made in Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Association of Realtors estimates that 45 percent of those purchases were made by first-time homebuyers. If that is the case, we need to double or triple the capacity of non-profits and municipalities to provide the best possible “self-defense” class for prospective buyers.

As parents, most of us wouldn’t dream of letting our sons and daughters learn to drive without formal driver’s education as the solid foundation for their future on the roads. Many would-be parents now enroll in childbirth classes as the sensible thing to do. As consumers, we have an interest in making homebuyer ed more widely available to prospective homebuyers. We’ve now seen the disastrous impact of letting unscrupulous mortgage lenders “educate” their clients.

Tom Callahan is the executive director of the Massachusetts Housing Affordable Housing Alliance, based in Dorchester.