Las calculadoras de hipotecas le ayudan a estimar el pago mensual de su préstamo, incluidos el capital, los intereses, los impuestos sobre la propiedad y el seguro. Algunas calculadoras estiman cuánto puede pagar mensualmente, otras calculan cuánto del total de una casa le es posible pagar.
La mayoría de estas calculadoras le harán preguntas sobre sus ingresos mensuales, gastos y más. Estas calculadoras rápidas no usan el mismo proceso que el de un prestamista hipotecario ni tampoco toman en cuenta otros factores para el préstamo.
Muchos compradores que van a comprar una casa por primera vez recurren a las calculadoras de hipoteca para ver si les es posible comprar dicha casa. Una de las preguntas más frecuentes es: “¿Cuánto puedo pagar por una casa?” Para mucha gente con bajos ingresos, el usar estas calculadoras termina con sus sueños de convertirse en propietarios de vivienda inmediatamente.
Habitat para la Humanidad de Houston está comprometido a colaborar con las familias para ayudarles a comprar casas asequibles y crear espacios seguros para vivir. No somos una herramienta digital, sino gente real que está aquí para ser un aliado de aquellas familias que más lo necesitan.
Aquí hay algunas formas en las que Hábitat para la Humanidad de Houston puede ayudarle a asegurar una vivienda asequible:
Las casas de Habitat para la Humanidad no son gratuitas. Parte de trabajar con Habitat para la Humanidad es asegurarnos de que nuestras familias puedan tener una hipoteca, ya que el ser propetarios de vivienda les ayuda a acumular riqueza con el tiempo mientras aumentan su capital.
Habitat para la Humanidad de Houston trabaja con una gran variedad de prestamistas para asegurar una hipoteca asequible para cada familia que califica para nuestro programa. Existen opciones de casas para bajos ingresos y para diferentes tipos de préstamos. Habitat para la Humanidad de Houston se compromete a garantizar que los pagos de la hipoteca no consuman más del 30 % de los ingresos del propietario de una vivienda y cumple este objetivo al ofrecer paquetes financieros compuestos por préstamos con intereses bajos o nulos y préstamos condonables.
Por lo general, nuestras familias ganan lo suficiente de manera anual para pagar la hipoteca sobre una casa de Habitat para la Humanidad de Houston, sin embargo no ganan lo necesario para pagar un préstamo tradicional.
Algunos factores que influyen para lograr obtener una hipoteca incluyen un ingreso anual, pago inicial, calificación crediticia y la proporción de deuda en sus ingresos.
Su calificación crediticia es importante pero no es el único factor para asegurar una hipoteca asequible. Entre mejor sea su calificación crediticia mejores serán las tasas de interés a las que pueda calificar y más opciones de préstamo estarán disponibles. Por lo que entre menor sea su califiación crediticia, más altas serán las tasas de interés.
Usualmente una puntuación de 620 le asegurará una buena tasa de interés. ¡Si su puntuación es menor no pierda la esperanza! Construir un crédito sólido toma su tiempo, pero los pasos no son complicados y nuestro equipo educativo puede proveerle recursos para aprender cómo mejorar su crédito con asesoramiento financiero. Mientras se prepara para comprar una casa, practique dar seguimiento a su presupuesto, asegúrese de hacer su pagos a tiempo (los pagos retrasados pueden dañar su puntaje muy rápido), reduzca sus saldos, (entre más crédito disponible, mejor) y evite abrir muchas cuentas.
Antes de calificar para una hipoteca, debe aplicar para ser parte de nuestro programa de propietarios de vivienda. Los requerimientos de ingresos anuales se determinan de acuerdo al número de integrantes de su familia y sus ingresos recurrentes. Para trabajar con Habitat para la Humanidad de Houston, su ingreso anual debe encontrarse entre el 50-80% de su ingreso promedio anual en Houston como se establece en el HUD. ¿Quiere saber si usted califica para ser un propietario de vivienda en Habitat para la Humanidad de Houston?
Families all across the United States are struggling to afford the cost of a home. Everywhere you look — cities, suburbs, rural areas — the stability that a home should bring remains out of reach for far too many people.
At Houston Habitat for Humanity, we know that a family should never have to spend more than 30% of their income on a home. But consider that even before the coronavirus pandemic, more than 18 million U.S. households were paying half or more of their income on a place to live.
According to the 2022 Kinder Houston Area Survey, a quarter of Houstonians are having difficulty paying their mortgage or rent. For African Americans, that number is about 40%. For Hispanics it is 37% and for whites it is 17%—both increasing significantly over the last year. Likewise, the share of people who could not cover a $400 emergency was starkly higher among these groups than for whites and Asians.
Now, as the economic impacts of the pandemic continue to be felt, millions of families are at risk of losing their homes. This is especially true for Black Americans and other people of color who were disproportionately impacted by the economic fallout of the crisis and who have faced greater housing unaffordability and insecurity. This is unacceptable.
There is a well-documented historic pattern of racial discrimination in housing and land use policies — at all levels of government — that still impact the makeup and opportunities of our communities. Hispanic and Black mortgage applicants face higher interest rates and more denials on lower-valued properties. And despite challenges in the mortgage market, Hispanic residents will soon become the largest share of homebuyers in the county. Hispanics are the only major racial/ethnic group with a growing homeownership rate in both Houston and the U.S. between 2020 and 2021.
Habitat serves a diverse range of homeowners. We provide more equitable access to low-cost financing that can help support building home equity. Mortgages for all Habitat homeowners, regardless of race, are priced to be affordable, with monthly payments kept at 30% or less of income. Habitat affiliates can create unique financing options that meet the needs of all of their homebuyers.
Houston Habitat provides homeownership opportunities that are accessible to homebuyers with low incomes who otherwise may not be able to access homeownership. This includes low-down-payment mortgages that are designed to work even for homeowners who lack pristine credit, thereby helping those homebuyers who are not able to secure traditional loan products.
Houstonians have a realistic view of these well documented racial disparities. We recognize it may be difficult to correct the racial bias in home appraisals and home loans as well as the disparities in local disaster recovery.
Almost every area in the U.S. faces a shortage of safe, decent and affordable homes, particularly homes available to those earning modest incomes. Houston, like much of our country, has long had a problem with supplying adequate affordable housing.
There is a direct impact on renters and homeowners alike, and especially Black and Hispanic households and those with the lowest incomes. Increasing the overall supply and accessibility of affordable homes is essential for increasing housing security and ensuring equitable recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Investing in affordable housing production and preservation, and creating new tools for housing stability, are critical for closing homeownership gaps for people of color, preventing racial divides from growing, and achieving affordability and housing security for all.
Houston Habitat for Humanity is actively working to do the following:
At Houston Habitat for Humanity, we know that home isn’t just a building or real estate; it’s also the community in which you live, work and grow. As communities experience new development and investment, localities need systems in place to preserve affordability, expand opportunities for homeownership, and prevent the displacement of lower-income residents.
Habitat for Humanity advocates for anti-racist housing and land-use policies at the local, state and federal levels that seek to increase racial equity in homeownership. Greater than 90% of the families that Houston Habitat has served in its home ownership program are African-American and Hispanic, as are the neighborhoods that Houston Habitat works to revitalize.
Houston Habitat for Humanity is in the process of developing Robins Landing, a vibrant, new mixed-income community with highly coveted amenities, in Northeast Houston. Robins Landing will provide up to 500 units of multifamily and senior housing. It will also provide 468 affordable, single family homes for low-income Houstonians. The demographics of these new homeowners is expected to be consistent the census tract- 97% minority, including 64% Black, help Black families achieve homeownership, and addressing racial inequity.
Houston Habitat for Humanity and Habitat for Humanity International are actively pursuing policy and system changes that rectify unequal housing opportunities and affordability for people of color, close the homeownership gap, and create a healthier housing market with affordable opportunities for all.
Houston Habitat for Humanity is collaborating with Habitat for Humanity International and their Public Policy Solutions Task Force to support, advise and guide the development of policy priorities and positions of their Cost of Home Campaign at all levels of government. The task force will identify federal affordable housing policy priorities, guide the development of the federal policy agenda for the campaign, and identify and define state and local policy priorities for the four subthemes of the campaign.
Sources:
Cost of Home Campaign, Habitat for Humanity International
2022 Kinder Institute Houston Area Survey, Rice Kinder Institute for Urban Research
2022 State of Housing Report, Rice Kinder Institute for Urban Research
A house is the most expensive purchase we make. It is often a substantial amount of money that we borrow from a bank and then spend decades paying off.
Your credit score is part of the information used by lenders to qualify for your loan and interest rate. If your credit score is low, it can impact your ability to qualify for a loan. Besides bad credit, a limited history of established credit can signal a low credit score.
When you apply for a mortgage, lenders want to know what risk they’d take by loaning you money. To evaluate this risk, lenders will often pull a credit report and credit score. The most widely used credit scores are FICO® Scores. FICO® Scores provide an unbiased and proven way to evaluate a consumer’s credit risk — helping consumers like you obtain credit more quickly and fairly.
Here is what determines your credit score:
The three major credit bureaus are Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. They house the history of your credit data. When you get a new loan, make or miss payments on loans, or use a credit card, it’s common for your lender to report this information to the credit bureaus. The information stored at the credit bureaus is represented in your credit reports. Your credit reports contain information about your credit history including loans, credit cards, inquiries, payments and more.
This is an issue for many people who wish to purchase a home. Because they pay in cash for most services, they may not have established credit history or may have insufficient credit resulting in no credit score or a low credit score.
If this sounds like your situation, you are not alone. An estimated 53 million people are “credit invisible.” Credit invisible means they don’t have a credit bureau file, or the file is insufficient for scoring. This is often the result of not having a history of using a credit card account or traditional loans.
As a result, families with invisible credit may be at high risk of predatory loans, and are virtually locked out of affordable homeownership opportunities. The lower your credit score, the higher the risk as determined by lenders. A high risk loan score can affect your monthly mortgage payment with higher interest rates.
Momentum is growing for initiatives that enable consumers to have their history of on-time rent payments or meeting other financial obligations included in credit scoring and lending evaluations. Rent payment reporting is emerging as a primary focus of these reforms. Research has found it to be a strong indicator of a renter’s future ability to make mortgage payments.
Other promising alternative data sources for credit history include utility, cable and cell phone payments, as well as bank account statements demonstrating cash flow. By providing a more complete picture of your history of financial responsibility, it can reduce “credit invisibility” and broaden access to safe, affordable credit.
Houston Habit will work with you to verify credit through nontraditional credit documentation or reference letters from creditors who do not typically report to the credit bureaus. These “other” creditors may include rent, car insurance, utility bills, childcare, local businesses, and medical expenses. We help you determine your current credit score and look at your entire credit history rather than just the credit score. We work hard to not deny applicants to our program solely based on your credit score.
Sources:
Inclusive Credit Scoring, January 25, 2022, Houston Habitat International
FicoScore Education, FicoScore.com
Mortgage calculators help you estimate your monthly loan payment including principal and interest, property taxes, and insurance. Some calculators estimate how much monthly payment you can afford, others help determine how much of a house you can afford as a total number.
Most of these calculators will ask questions about your monthly income, expenses, and more. These quick calculators don’t use the same process as a mortgage lender or take into account other lending factors.
Many first-time homebuyers turn to a mortgage calculator to see if they can afford to buy a home. One of the biggest questions is “how much house can I afford?”. For many low-income people using a traditional mortgage calculator immediately ends their dream of becoming a homeowner.
Houston Habitat for Humanity is committed to partnering with families to help them buy affordable homes and create safe places to live. We are not an online tool, but real people who are here to partner with those families that are most in need.
Here are some ways that Houston Habitat for Humanity can help you secure an affordable home:
Houston Habitat homes are not free houses. Part of partnering with Houston Habitat is ensuring our families secure their own mortgage because homeownership helps families accumulate wealth over time as they build equity.
Houston Habitat works with a variety of lenders to secure an affordable mortgage for every family who qualifies for our program. There are low income home loan options for different types of loans. Habitat is committed to ensuring mortgage payments consume no more than 30% of a homeowner’s income and meets this goal by offering financial packages composed of low- or zero-interest loans and forgivable loans.
Typically, our families will earn enough annually to pay back the mortgage for the home that they buy from Habitat, but not quite enough to qualify for a traditional home loan. Factors that contribute to securing a mortgage include annual income, down payment, credit score and debt to income ratio.
Your credit score is important, but not the lone factor in securing an affordable mortgage. The better your credit score, the better interest rate you’ll qualify for and the more loan options that will be available. So the lower your credit score, the higher the interest rate.
Typically a score of 620 will ensure a good interest rate. If your score is lower than this, don’t lose hope! Building strong credit takes time, but the steps aren’t complicated and our educational team can provide resources to learn about improving your credit with financial counseling. While preparing to buy a home, practice following a budget, make sure you make all payments on time (missed payments can sink your score pretty quickly), reduce your balances (the more available credit, the better), and avoid opening too many new accounts.
Before qualifying for a mortgage, you need to apply to be part of our homeownership program. Annual income requirements are based on the size of your family and your income. To partner with Houston Habitat, your annual income must be between 50-80% of the annual median income for Houston as established by HUD.
Want to see if you are eligible to be a Houston Habitat Homeowner?
June is National Homeownership Month, and we have all learned over the last few years how important homeownership is as our homes have become our workplaces, schools for our children and safe harbors in which we’ve weathered the toughest moments of a global pandemic.
This year, Houston Habitat is celebrating the joy of homeownership and fatherhood with this profile of our most recent homeowner and father: Jacoby George.
As a single father, Jacoby George’s main purpose in life has been to provide a happy and stable home for his three children: Jacoby (age 17), Jacob (age 14) and Jennae (age 10). On Tuesday, April 19, that purpose was fulfilled as he cut the ribbon in front of his Houston Habitat for Humanity home.
Homeownership has been a “life goal” for George, as he began his partnership with Houston Habitat in November 2021. George literally dug into the process as he began putting in the necessary hours to become a homeowner include including financial education courses and participating in sweat equity — helping to build homes for others. The wh
ole family was dedicated to the effort with son Jacobi also assisting with sweat equity efforts by picking up his own hammer. (Note: volunteers must be 16 years old to participate on a Houston Habitat build) In January, alongside volunteers from UTHealth Houston and UT Physicians, he learned his hard work and dedication had paid off.
“I was shocked. I had no idea I was actually building my own home that day,” recalled George.
Less than a year after being accepted into the program, Jacoby and his family now have a completed home for their home and eagerly await their closing and move-in date. With four bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a spacious living area, there’s plenty of room to make memories and grow. George is also aware that studies have drawn a pathway between owning a decent, affordable and stable home and experiencing positive educational outcomes for his children. Stable home environments raise children’s math and reading test scores, making affordable homeownership a conduit for greater residential stability.1
While the benefits of educational stability are important to George, his children are more focused on their new rooms! “We are so happy to receive this blessing,” he said. “My family and I are so happy. This is a great way to start off the year. Came from nothing and now God has blessed me and family with a home,” said George, “If I can do it, anybody can do it.”
1 Lisa L. Mohanty and Lakshmi K. Raut, “Home Ownership and School Outcomes of Children: Evidence from the PSID Child Development Supplement,” The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 68.2 (2009), 465–90.
Being hurricane ready is necessary as a Gulf Coast resident. While it’s essential to be prepared year-round for floods and extreme weather, it’s especially important now as hurricane season starts.
