Can You Buy A House With Section 8 Benefits?

But did you know that it may help you buy a home as well? See how now.

Apply for a Section 8 housing voucher, and you could enjoy the benefit of only paying 30 percent of your income towards rent. Who pays the rest? Uncle Sam, with a direct monthly payment that goes to your landlord.

As you can imagine, this is a very popular benefit since it makes renting a lot more affordable. But here’s Section 8’s biggest downside: Its popularity. There’s a ton of demand for Section 8 vouchers and limited supply, which results in waiting times that some say reach 10 years.

Are you willing to wait years to pay less rent to your landlord? Maybe not, but you may be willing to wait if you can use that same voucher to buy your first home by helping you with:

• Securing a lower interest rate.
• Down payment.
• Closing costs.
• A portion of your monthly mortgage.

Although many think Section 8 is just for renting, its Housing Choice Voucher homeownership program says otherwise. Here are the basics about this program that makes owning a home more accessible for low-income families.

How The Housing Choice Voucher Homeownership Program Works

Whether you want to use a housing voucher towards rent or to buy a home, you will first need to apply to Section 8 by contacting your nearest Public Housing Agency (PHA). They will assist you throughout the application process and determine eligibility. If you qualify for a voucher and want to buy a home with it, you can do so. But instead of that voucher going to your landlord to pay rent each month, it’ll go towards your mortgage.

What does it take to be eligible for the homeownership program?

• You must be a first-time homeowner, or someone in your household must have a disability. Not having an ownership interest in a house for the past three years qualifies as first-time homeownership.
• You must make at least a minimum income set by your PHA. To meet that income, you cannot include benefits from government assistance programs. This is to ensure that you can pay your portion of the mortgage.
• Unless elderly or disabled, you must be employed full-time (more than 30 hours per week) for at least a year before buying the home.
• You must take homeownership counseling classes.
• You must meet requirements specifically put in place by your PHA.
• You will need to come up with at least a three percent down payment for the home, with at least one percent coming from your own income. The other two percent can come from other programs.

If you qualify for this program, you will have to spend 30 percent of your monthly income towards housing expenses, similar to if you were using your voucher to rent. To get started with your application, contact your PHA now.