Section 8-esque mortgage assistance?

Question

I'm curious if anyone has had experience helping line up financing assistance for low-income buyers with HUD's Homeownership Voucher Program? I've no doubt that this has been affected by the current sequestration - given that it appears to come from the same pool as rental vouchers - but for those vouchers that are available it seems to be a way to help buyers qualify.

(I know, same moral hazard as rental vouchers...I'm just curious as to anyone's experience with the program.)

Ben Skove · Answer

It definitely varies from area to area, as the program is driven by local PHA, rather than at the national level. Given how rental vouchers are handled differently from HA to HA, this is pretty unsurprising. Mine did 9 HVP last year alone, so the odds are better here. I'll get in touch with them and see what the process looks like, then report back.

Chris Martin · Answer

From the link you provided, you can get an Excel spreadsheet that shows how many vouchers each HA has historically used for this program. My area... a grand total of 1 about 10 years ago. This was a very small program before sequestration... total numbers in 2012 were lowest since program inception. Hard to believe it will grow anytime soon.

To put the number of buyers in perspective, getting a purchase via HUD HVP appears to be about twice as likely as winning $1 Million or more in a lottery (based in this analysis of how many lottery winners there are)