A new community investment model is addressing the financial knowledge gap that keeps many renters from transitioning to homeownership. Steven Libman, founder of Investing With Purpose™, has spent 15 years developing a faith-driven approach to multifamily real estate that places financial literacy at the core of resident services. The model is currently operational at a property owned by Integrity Holdings Group (IHG) in Lubbock, Texas, where residents have access to a structured financial education program and a potential path to purchasing their own homes.
The wealth disparity between homeowners and renters is stark. According to data cited by Libman, the average U.S. homeowner has a net worth exceeding $350,000, while the average renter's net worth is approximately $10,500. This gap, he argues, is not primarily about income but about knowledge, access, and the compounding effect of financial decisions made without proper guidance. Many renters lack basic financial literacy, including how to build credit, reduce debt, and save for a down payment, skills that are rarely taught in schools or at home.
Libman describes this as a societal failure that the real estate industry has largely ignored. "We have done a really good job of reconciling our giving and our philanthropy to our core values," he says. "But when it comes to our investments, we outsource our conscience and our thinking to someone else." His model aims to change that by embedding financial education into the living experience.
The Lubbock property, a 418-unit community of individually deeded duplexes, runs a financial literacy program in partnership with Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. Delivered by on-site ministry coordinators, the program is free for residents and covers debt reduction, credit building, and savings strategies. Residents who complete the program and meet qualifying milestones have a pathway to purchase their own unit, with support from local credit unions and banks. "Maybe the single mom who thought she would be renting forever is, two years later, a landlord," Libman says. "That changes the trajectory for her and her kids."
The model is not purely philanthropic; it is also a sound business strategy. Libman notes that residents with strong social ties within a community are 45 to 50 percent less likely to leave, and properties with structured community engagement programs see lease attrition drop by 40 to 50 percent. Lower turnover reduces costs and stabilizes income, making the financial literacy program an investment in asset performance. "Community is not a soft metric," he emphasizes.
Investing With Purpose is also expanding its initiatives to include summer tutoring and kids' programming at several portfolio properties, addressing learning gaps that affect children in multifamily housing during school breaks. The broader question the model raises, according to Libman, is what responsibility an operator has to residents beyond maintenance and lease compliance. For a faith-driven operator, he argues, that answer is insufficient.
"Where people live affects almost everything their life touches," Libman says. "The communities they are building, the people they are with, if we can impact somebody's life inside a community, and then you see the butterfly effect of that, it is immeasurable." More information on the Asset Ministry Program and the firm's broader community investment model is available at investingwithpurpose.org/impact.
