1st Habitat Homeowner Pays Off Mortgage

In this economy, thousands are losing their homes everyday. "This" isn't one of those stories. In fact, this housing story is one of the good ones.

As far as homes go, this is a bright spot in what has become a dark time lately. As families are losing their homes at record numbers, there's one woman who has a very different story to tell.

Dorothy Howard, 72, has plenty to celebrate and a number of folks in the city stopped by to help her enjoy a major milestone.

Howard built her house 20 years ago. She was the first Houstonian to move into a Houston Habitat for Humanity home.

The big bash is to celebrate the great, great grandmother paying off her 20-year mortgage.

During the celebration she was given a framed deed to her home with the word "paid" stamped on it in big red letters.

This mother of eight raised her children in a three-bedroom Fifth Ward apartment. She worked as a machinist for an oil company but never made enough money to buy her own home until habitat came along in 1988.

This house which now holds decades of memories hasn't only been home for Howard. She says it's a blessing. She has also raised a number of her grandchildren here.

Howard is one of the few in her family who own her own home and one of the few in the country who is still a homeowner.

While the national foreclosure rate is about 10 percent, only about 4 percent of Houston Habitat homeowners lose their homes.