Qualifications for Section 8 Homeownership
Many people know the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program as a rental assistance initiative. While it does subsidize the rents of low-income families, it also offers the chance to become a homeowner in some areas. You simply use your Section 8 voucher to compensate for the portion of your mortgage, as opposed to your rent, that exceeds, in most cases, 30 percent of your household income.
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Participating PHA
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Not all public housing agencies (PHAs) participate in HUD's Homeownership Voucher Program. You can seek housing with a Section 8 voucher anywhere you like--even outside of your original PHA's jurisdiction--as long as the PHA that covers that area administers the Homeownership Voucher Program and accepts new households into the program.
Income
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To qualify to purchase a home through HUD's Homeownership Voucher program, all adult family members must combine to earn the federal hourly minimum wage times 2,000 hours annually. In disabled families, all adult family members must earn at least 12 times the monthly Federal Supplemental Security Income for a person residing alone. Unless your family qualifies as elderly or disabled, you cannot count welfare assistance toward the income minimum. PHAs have the authority to set higher income requirements.
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Employment
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With elderly and disabled families the exception, one or more adult family members who will own the home must work at a full-time job. You or the other family member must have held a full-time job, continuously, for at least one year before homeownership assistance begins.
Home Buyer Status
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HUD restricts participation in the Homeownership Voucher Program to first-time home buyers. HUD defines first-time home buyers as persons who have not owned or held an ownership interest in their dwelling or another residential property for the last three years.
Property Inspection
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If you pass muster with HUD, the property you want to buy receives scrutiny next. HUD will only provide assistance after your dwelling passes not only a HUD housing inspection but an independent home inspection that you commission.
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