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Goal: Increase the Availability of Affordable Homes
Role: Help Residents Succeed

States and localities can help families access opportunities, achieve stability, manage expenses, and build the knowledge and skills to make informed decisions about their housing options. Pre-purchase homeownership education helps families consider the move into homeownership, navigate the complicated home-buying process, and improve their credit and debt profile so they can access private-market mortgage capital at reasonable rates. It is important to marry a pre-purchase strategy with post-purchase homeownership education and counseling designed to help existing homeowners cope with ongoing budgeting and maintenance challenges that can threaten their housing stability. Finally, foreclosure prevention and response programs can keep families housed despite household economic troubles and can help owners and renters who lose their home to recover and regain stability.

Click on the policies below to learn more about ways to implement this strategy.


Expand homeownership education and counseling

Homeownership education and counseling offers important benefits that help families to both attain homeownership and sustain it once they're in place.




Prevent foreclosures and help affected renters and owners
Foreclosure prevention and response strategies help families get back on track economically and retain their home or recover quickly after a foreclosure. Communities can also take action to stabilize impacted neighborhoods and prevent a cycle of decline.

Provide homeowner
rehab assistance

Homeowner rehab assistance enables low- and moderate-income families to undertake repairs that improve the safety and health of their homes. Rehab assistance programs can also be used to improve home accessibility, energy efficiency, and resistance to natural disasters.


Photo credits (L to R): homeownership counseling photo courtesy of NHS of Chicago; foreclosure prevention photo credit: John Booz, courtesy of Valerie Denney Communications; Fall Creek Place, Indianapolis IN -- photo credit: Chris Palladino, Courtesy of Mansur Real Estate Services, Inc.