The North Carolina Housing Finance Agency leverages public funds with private investments to finance affordable housing opportunities that move North Carolina, its economy, its communities and its citizens forward.
The North Carolina Housing Finance Agency leverages public funds with private investments to finance affordable housing opportunities that move North Carolina, its economy, its communities and its citizens forward.
In 2019, the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency’s investments moved the needle on affordable housing, passing milestones of 100,000 affordable apartments financed and 120,000 home buyers helped in the state since 1973. The Agency leveraged public-private partnerships to create affordable housing opportunities in 523 communities during the year. Small investments produced big results, helping vulnerable citizens remain in their homes or move forward in their lives after natural disasters left them displaced.
Our investments in affordable housing have moved North Carolina forward since 1973. To date, the Agency has financed:
Affordable apartments improve neighborhoods, generating local income, taxes and jobs and often boosting purchasing power and property values. Farrington Trace will bring 80 apartments to a heavily traveled area in Greenville, providing working families with an affordable option near a grocery store, restaurants and other retail services.
Learn more about the impact of Housing Credits in North Carolina, the positive effect on property values and the immediate and long-term impacts of our rental production investments.
The Agency provides financing to local governments and nonprofit organizations to build and rehabilitate homes for low-wealth North Carolinians. Our Community Partners Loan Pool and Self-Help Loan Pool offer down payment assistance, mortgage financing and energy efficiency subsidies that help make home ownership affordable.
Our Agency protects home ownership by preventing foreclosures, vacancies and disrepair that can damage community strength. Before closing in July 2019, the NC Foreclosure Prevention Fund preserved more than $5 billion in property value in more than 650 neighborhoods across the state since its 2010 launch. In addition to the 29,680 homes saved by the Fund, an additional 18,020 homes have been saved by the ongoing State Home Foreclosure Prevention Project (SHFPP), which offers free housing counseling, access to legal services for low-income homeowners and assistance working with servicers. Available through our statewide housing counseling partner network, SHFPP has provided counseling to 129,980 homeowners.
The Agency’s work in 2019 helped more than 120,000 North Carolinians move their lives in new directions. More than 40,000 of these were renters needing affordable apartments or rental assistance.
I needed a place to…be independent. In a house, you have stairs. Here, I can go to the grocery store and use my wheelchair and bring the groceries in all by myself. In this apartment, I especially love that the wheelchair can go in any room. It’s a handicap accessible apartment, and when I go in the kitchen I can roll right up to the sink to do my dishes. Right here. I am three minutes away from my doctor, the new hospital is less than five minutes away and we are right here at the interstate to get to Winston. It’s very convenient. My quality of life has changed since I came here. Before everything was so difficult for me to get around and now it is just so much easier. I’m not in as much pain because I don’t have to walk as much. Not being in as much pain and being able to maneuver [my wheelchair] and do for myself has just made the biggest difference for me.”
Resident, Smith Creek Apartments, Bermuda Run
Agency investments of nearly $740 million—fueled in large part by the NC Home Advantage Mortgage™ with up to 5% down payment help—continued to provide affordable mortgage options for buyers with low and moderate incomes. First-time buyers and veterans got a big boost with the Agency’s $8,000 NC 1st Home Advantage Down Payment.
My kids have a better environment and a place to live in. I’m ready to have cookouts, have family over for the holidays, doing a whole bunch of stuff I haven’t done in years. Home is a safe place. It’s a safe place, a place you can feel comfortable, you can be you, you don’t have to worry about anything. It’s just a safe place.”
Home Buyer, Person County Habitat for Humanity
Foreclosures have been found to negatively impact mental and physical health of homeowners and cause long-term damage to the health and education outcomes of their children. Agency foreclosure prevention investments in 2019 kept 2,420 in their homes. Before closing in 2019, the NC Foreclosure Prevention Fund helped 29,680 families who struggled with mortgage payments due to no-fault job loss or other temporary hardships. A High Point woman who lost her job held on to her home while she re-trained as a special education teacher. The Fund’s Veterans Initiative helped a Fort Bragg army veteran and his wife keep their home while he attended school on the GI Bill.
Affordable housing transforms North Carolina. The Agency leveraged the North Carolina Housing Trust Fund with private sector and federal dollars to finance 1,240 units for low-income families, seniors, veterans and persons with disabilities in 2019. More than 97% of those helped have incomes below 60% of their area’s median income, with close to half below 30% of the median income.
Our Agency works with hundreds of partners across the state to invest financing for apartments and homes, affordable home mortgage products, rental and owner-occupied housing rehabilitation, foreclosure prevention, supportive housing and rent subsidies. Our extensive partner network ensures that every county from Cherokee to Dare benefits from affordable housing investments.
