Helps low-income individuals and families attain home ownership. New houses are built through contributions and volunteer labor and are then sold to carefully screened families.   May be able to subsidize the thirty-party mortgage. Recipients are required to contribute 250 hours of "sweat equity" labor.   On average builds 10-20 homes per year. Some homes are set aside for veteran applicants.

Offers loans for low-income homeowners to purchase, build (including sites, water, and sewer), repair, move, or modernize their dwellings.  Includes sweat-equity construction loan programs, guaranteed loans, and rural site housing programs.   Rural Housing Guaranteed Loan Applicants for loans may have an income of up to 115% of the median income for the area. Families must be without adequate housing, but be able to afford the mortgage payments, including taxes and insurance. In addition, applicants must have reasonable credit histories.    Rural Housing Direct Loan Section 502 loans are primarily used to help low-income individuals or households purchase homes in rural areas. Funds can be used to acquire, build (including funds to purchase and prepare sites and to provide water and sewage facilities), repair, renovate or relocate a home.     Mutual Self-Help Loans The Section 502 Mutual Self-Help Housing Loan program is used primarily to help very low- and low-income households construct their own homes. The program is targeted to families who are unable to buy clean, safe housing through conventional methods. Families participating in a mutual self-help project perform approximately 65 percent of the construction labor on each other's homes under qualified supervision. The savings from the reduction in labor costs allows otherwise ineligible families to own their homes. If families cannot meet their mortgage payments during the construction phase, the funds for these payments can be included in the loan.