Homeownership offers many benefits to individuals, families and the wider community. Owning a home is one way to create generational wealth and invest in your neighborhood. It can create housing stability in a tumultuous rental market and stave off the displacement effects of gentrification.

On the other hand, homeownership is an investment – which means it costs money, whether that money comes from savings, loans, grants or other forms. The good news? There are countless programs on the neighborhood, city, county, state and national level that can help you buy a house and invest in your community.

To get you started, we’ve gathered a non-exhaustive list of those programs and the organizations that offer them.

Chicago Housing Authority

Home Ownership Made Easy

  • Choose to Own allows qualified Housing Choice Voucher and Public Housing families to use its housing subsidy to buy a home and make mortgage payments.
  • Down Payment Assistance Program assists first-time home buyers with grants of up to $20,000 to help cover down payments and closing costs.
  • The CHA also offers virtual and in-person workshops for prospective homebuyers, Realtors and lenders.

Chicago Department of Planning and Development

ChiBlockBuilder

  • To encourage the purchase and redevelopment of city-owned vacant lots, Chicago has an application portal for selling land with preferred use based on zoning and community plans
  • The latest round of land sales opened in October and targets North Lawndale. Lots zoned for affordable housing construction or urban agriculture projects are priced at $1 per lot.

Chicago Department of Housing

The Building Neighborhoods and Affordable Homes Program

  • BNAH provides eligible buyers with grants to help them purchase a newly constructed single-family residential building.

Repair programs

  • Home Repair Program gives funding to low-income Chicago homeowners to make necessary repairs (previously called the Roof and Porch Repair Program)
  • As of Nov. 1, the Emergency Heating Repair program is open to owner-occupants of one-to-four-unit properties earning less than 80% of the median area income. It offers grants to replace or repair heating systems.

The DOH has a longer list of programs available to homeowners on its website.

Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago

Homebuyer Education Course

  • NHS offers virtual and in-person homebuyer education courses led by HUD-certified housing counselors.
  • The course covers the basics of budgeting, credit, shopping for a home, closing on a home and more.

Neighborhood Lending Services

  • NLS is the largest non-profit licensed mortgage lender in Illinois.
  • The lender offers purchase and purchase with rehab loans, including up to 100% financing for qualified borrowers. Qualification is not based solely on credit score.
  • NLS also offers refinancing and home improvement loans, as well as down payment assistance.

NHS also provides real estate services to help you search for and buy a home.

Cook County Bureau of Economic Development

Down Payment Assistance Program

Housing Authority of Cook County

Homeownership Program

  • The homeownership program helps eligible first-time homebuyers afford a mortgage by providing vouchers that cover a portion of monthly mortgage payments.

Illinois Housing Development Authority

Home Repair and Community Revitalization Programs

  • The Home Repair and Accessibility Program helps low- and very low-income homeowners pay for repairs related to safety, health and accessibility in their homes. Eligible homeowners (total household income must be at or below 80% of the area median income) may receive up to $45,000 in the form of a five- or three-year forgivable loan to fund repairs. Grants are administered by city/town-level grantees.

Homeownership Counseling and Mortgages

  • The IHDA funds a network of housing counselors across the state.
  • The agency also offers affordable mortgages that require borrowers to take a homeownership course, as well as grants and loans for home down payments.
  • You can learn more at ihdamortgage.org/homebuyers.