To be eligible to purchase a home through Raleigh Area Land Trust, applicants must meet the following criteria. Please read.

• Be a Citizen of the USA or registered alien.  

• Majority Age: must be 18 or older to qualify for a mortgage.

• Income Eligibility Maximum Income: To be considered for selection, a household must have an annual income which does not exceed eighty percent (80%) of the median income of households of equal size residing in the statistical area (as defined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development or its successor agency) within which the housing unit is located. 

• Creditworthiness: In all cases, a household must be able to demonstrate a sense of ownership of its financial obligations, and a history of responsible effort to meet them. The mortgage underwriting guidelines of the lending programs available to RALT homebuyers shall determine the credit risk and overall creditworthiness of the applicant. 

• Pre-qualification: The household must be "pre-qualified" through DHIC Financial counseling services and RALT's application process to determine whether mortgage financing is likely to be obtained by the household based on the applicant’s available cash resources and the known requirements of various mortgage programs for which the household may be eligible.

• Minimum Income: To be considered for RALT’s homeownership opportunities, a household’s monthly income, when multiplied by the appropriate debt-to-income ratio, must be sufficient to support the housing costs for the housing opportunity in question. In general, households that require a co-signer in order to obtain a mortgage will not be considered. 

• Affordability - (i.e. matching household income to housing cost): In general, affordability means that the monthly cost of occupying a particular home does not exceed thirty percent (30%) of monthly gross household income and monthly housing costs and total debt payments do not exceed forty percent (40%) of monthly gross household income. 

• Assets : To be considered for RALT’s homeownership opportunities, a review of a household’s financial resources and circumstances should clearly indicate a limited ability to compete successfully in the conventional housing market. Applicants will be required to provide 1% of the base purchase price toward the home purchase, from the buyers own funds. For example, homes purchased for $150,000 will require $1,500 in buyers own funds. 

• First-time homebuyers: Defined as someone who has not owned a principal residence in the past twelve months; or a single parent who may have owned a home with a former spouse in the past twelve months but now no longer resides there.

• Be prepared for closing costs to range from $5,000 to $8,000 dollars. There is a minimum $1,000 personal savings requirement. The rest of the closing costs can come from gifts, loans, or other sources.

Thanks for your interest in purchasing or renting a home through the Raleigh Area Land Trust! Please allow for up to 60 days from the date of submission for review.