Huntingdon Area Habitat for Humanity builds and rehabs homes for low-income individuals and families in Huntingdon County, PA. Our zero interest mortgages allow us to help qualified families realize homeownership. We have built houses from the ground up as well as rehabilitated older houses.
Habitat for Humanity is an equal opportunity program. Applicants are selected based on their need for housing, willingness to partner with us, and their ability to pay the mortgage. Individuals from all races, sexes, and creeds are encouraged to apply. Our program is a “hand up” to those who may not qualify for a conventional mortgage.
Becoming a Family Partner is a process that involves filling out a mortgage application with us, providing income and other verification and meeting income and other eligibility requirements. Once a family is selected, and the home is completed, they will purchase the home through a zero interest mortgage with Habitat.
Families must be willing to commit to 200 hours of sweat equity toward the building and renovation of the property, which makes our program unique. That amounts to about 4-8 (possibly more) hours of work per week over the course of the build. Families can enlist the help of friends and other family members, but they must do much of their sweat equity on their own. Families work alongside seasoned volunteers and professional contractors. You don’t have to have building experience to participate.
We will complete a credit check. We don’t expect your credit to be perfect, but your credit report should show that you have been regularly paying your bills on time for several years. You cannot have declared bankruptcy in the last 2 years, must be paying your bills on time and showing success in meeting any past debt obligations.You need to have adequate income to pay your mortgage, taxes and insurance bills to us and to pay any other bills and debts (including collection accounts) as well as living expenses. We expect to see one to two years employment or other income that will continue for the foreseeable future.
A family must meet income guidelines, including having a minimum annual income of $25,500 for a family of two. For a family of four in 2023, for example, the income guideline is between a minimum income of $38,550 and a maximum income of $61,650, before taxes are taken out. This means an approximate monthly, before taxes income of $3,000 to $4,800 for a family of four. Recent mortgage payments (which also include taxes and insurance) have been around $600 to $700 for families of two to four people. We have minimum income limits because we sell our houses to our family partners at fair market value.
Your eventual housing expenses cannot exceed 30% of your income and your debt payments (car payments, personal loan payments, student debt payments, etc), mortgage, taxes and insurance payments, cannot exceed 40% of your income.
2023 Income Requirements. (Before taxes and Other Deductions)
Family Size 2 from $30,850 to $49,350
3 from $37,000 to $55,500
4 from $38,550 to $61,650
5 from $41,650 to $66,600
6 from $44,750 to $71,550
7 from $47,850 to $76,450
If you would like to talk about our program, and would like to be considered for our next build please email us with your phone number and good times to call and we can do an intake interview by phone.
We take applications when we anticipate starting a new house build or renovation. But we’d like to talk to you anytime to answer your questions to see if our program would be a good fit for you and your family.
