Section 8 homeownership: can you use a voucher to buy a home?

Yes, but only where your local housing authority offers it. A housing authority is the local government office that runs Section 8 vouchers. You generally must be a first-time buyer, have steady work and finish homebuyer counseling first. HUD, the federal housing department, lets each authority decide whether to offer the option.

Can you buy a house with a Section 8 voucher?

Yes, through the homeownership option of the Housing Choice Voucher program, the official name of Section 8. HUD says families who get a voucher can use it to buy a home. They then get monthly help with the costs of owning it.

It is an option, not a right. Federal rules let each housing authority offer monthly payments, a one-time down payment grant, both or neither (24 CFR 982.625, where CFR means Code of Federal Regulations). There is one exception. An authority must offer it if a person with a disability needs it as a reasonable accommodation. That means a change to a rule that the disability makes necessary. An authority with no program may still decide that the change is not reasonable.

HUD's guidebook says there is no separate pot of money for it. The authority pays for it from its regular voucher funding.

You also need a voucher first. A family can be a current voucher holder or be newly admitted from the waitlist (24 CFR 982.625, 982.627). If you don't have one yet, start with how to apply for Section 8 and how to find an open waitlist.

How many housing authorities offer it?

A minority. A May 2023 analysis by the Urban Institute, a research group, used HUD data from 2021. It found that just 22 percent of housing authorities used any vouchers for homeownership. Fewer than 0.5 percent of all vouchers were used that way. That is research, not a HUD count, and it is older. HUD also publishes a homeownership dashboard, a web page that shows which authorities have an active program. You can reach it from HUD's homeownership program page.

Who qualifies under the federal rules?

An authority can add rules of its own. These are the federal rules that apply everywhere (24 CFR 982.627):

An "elderly family" has a head, spouse or sole member who is 62 or older. A "disabled family" has one with a disability (24 CFR 5.403). For other families, welfare payments do not count toward the minimum income.

Authorities may set higher minimums. Oakland's housing authority, for example, uses the city's minimum wage times 2,000 hours ($33,780 as of January 2025), asks for a credit score of 640 and expects savings of at least 3.5% of the price, or 1% for elderly and disabled families. The federal rule softens this. A family that meets HUD's minimum but not the local one still counts if it has a mortgage pre-approval that meets the authority's financing rules and is big enough to buy a home that passes HUD's health and safety standard.

How do you buy the home?

1. Finish counseling. The counselor must work for a HUD-approved agency (24 CFR 982.630). HUD's counselor search lists approved agencies.
2. Get a mortgage. You choose the lender. The authority may set lender and loan standards and may review the loan, but may not require a particular lender (24 CFR 982.632). To run a program, an authority must meet one of three tests. One is requiring at least 3% down, with 1% from your own money (24 CFR 982.625).
3. Find an eligible home. It must be a one-unit home, a manufactured home or a single unit in a condominium or cooperative (24 CFR 982.628). HUD's guidebook says it must also be inside the authority's area.
4. Sign a contract with the required terms. You must be free to back out if your independent inspection is unsatisfactory, and not obligated to pay for repairs (24 CFR 982.631).
5. Pass two inspections. The authority checks the home against Housing Quality Standards, HUD's basic health and safety test. You also hire and pay an independent inspector, whom the authority may not choose. The authority may reject a home based on that report.
6. Close. Help starts once every check is done. An authority may set a deadline to find and buy a home. If you miss it, it may issue a rental voucher or put you back on the waitlist (24 CFR 982.629).

How does the monthly payment work?

The authority pays the lower of two amounts (24 CFR 982.635). Your share is the part of your income that the rules expect you to put toward housing.

The first amount is the payment standard minus your share. The payment standard is the most the authority will count toward your housing costs. It depends on the number of bedrooms. The authority uses the lower of the standard for your household size and the standard for the home's size.

The second amount is your allowed monthly costs minus your share. Allowed costs include your mortgage payment (the loan and its interest), mortgage insurance, property taxes and homeowner's insurance. They also include the authority's allowances for maintenance, major repairs and utilities.

The payment standard cannot drop below its level when help began. The authority may pay you or your lender. If the payment is larger than what the lender is owed, you get the rest.

Here is a made-up example. The payment standard is $1,500 and the family's share is $600.

Your authority sets the real payment standard and allowances.

How long does the help last?

For most buyers, up to 15 years if the first mortgage runs 20 years or longer, and 10 years if it is shorter (24 CFR 982.634). The limit applies to the owners and their spouses.

The limit does not apply to an elderly family, if it is elderly when help starts, or to a disabled family, if it is disabled at any time while receiving help. A family that stops qualifying has the limit counted from the start, but gets at least 6 more months of help.

Help also ends if you move out, 180 days after the last payment, or after a foreclosure (24 CFR 982.633, 982.635, 982.638).

How do you find out if your authority offers it?

1. Find your authority in HUD's directory of local housing authorities.
2. Ask whether it runs the homeownership option. Any extra rules must be written in its administrative plan, the document where it sets its local rules.
3. Check HUD's homeownership dashboard for active programs.
4. If it has none, HUD encourages residents to ask the authority to start one. If a disability makes it necessary, ask for it as a reasonable accommodation.
5. If you want to buy in another area, the authority there must run a program and accept new families (24 CFR 982.636).

What do our listings show?

As of October 5, 2026, we track 361 open for-sale listings in 30 states. Colorado has the most (56), then California (50), Massachusetts (48) and Pennsylvania (36). They come from community land trusts (nonprofits that hold the land so the home stays affordable), cities, counties and developers. Many have rules such as first-time buyers only. Our kinds of housing page explains them, and open listings has a for-sale filter.

Our listings don't say which housing authorities offer the voucher option. We searched each listing's text for "voucher," "Section 8" and "Housing Choice," and none of the 361 mentions them. A housing authority runs 30 of the 361, mostly in Colorado, but those are local programs. A housing authority's name on a listing does not mean it runs the voucher option.

What are the other ways to buy with help?

If your authority has no program, or you have no voucher, HUD's help page points to loans from the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), a HUD-approved housing counselor and home loans from the Department of Veterans Affairs for veterans. Many states and local governments also run their own homebuyer programs.

Many for-sale homes have income limits. These are often a share of the area median income (AMI), which is the middle income in your area. Half of households earn more and half earn less. Our guide to what AMI means explains it. Our free qualify check shows which open homes fit your household, and how to qualify for affordable housing covers the wider rules.