Helping Families Achieve Homeownership Is Great — But It’s Not Enough
Homeownership is often presented as the finish line. Get the keys, sign the mortgage, and the hard part is over.
In reality, that’s just the beginning.
Owning a home comes with ongoing costs that don’t show up in the purchase price: rising property taxes, increasing utility bills, routine maintenance, and unexpected repairs. For many families, these expenses quietly stack up until housing consumes 30%, 40%, or even 50% or more of their income.
That’s how families become house broke — a term commonly used to describe homeowners who technically own a home, but are financially stretched so thin by housing costs that there’s little room left for savings, emergencies, or basic stability.
Affordable to Buy Does Not Mean Affordable to Own
Affordable homeownership opportunities are critical. Lower mortgage payments and reasonable interest rates absolutely matter. But focusing only on the purchase price ignores the full cost of owning a home.
Utility costs continue to rise. Property taxes increase year over year. A water heater can fail in the middle of winter. An HVAC system can go out during a heat wave. Roofs, plumbing, electrical systems — none of these wait for a “good time” financially.
At the same time, wages for many working families have not kept pace with the cost of living. Even households that start out stable can find themselves under financial strain within a few years of becoming homeowners.
Helping families buy homes without addressing these realities risks placing them in a different version of the same struggle they were trying to escape.
Affordable Housing vs. Housing Affordability
Habitat DeKalb advocates for more than just affordable housing — we focus on housing affordability.
The distinction matters.
Affordable housing typically refers to the upfront cost of a home: the sale price, mortgage terms, and interest rates. Housing affordability looks at the long-term picture — whether a family can realistically sustain homeownership over time without financial distress.
A truly affordable home is one a family can afford to live in, maintain, and keep.
What Housing Affordability Looks Like in Practice
Housing affordability requires ongoing support, education, and policy change — not just keys handed over at closing.
Habitat DeKalb works toward housing affordability by lowering the cost to build homes through donated materials and thousands of volunteer hours, significantly reducing construction expenses. Habitat DeKalb also offers a zero-equivalent mortgage — structured so long-term and affordable that it functions much like having no interest at all. This provides families with critical breathing room to save, plan, and absorb life’s unexpected costs instead of becoming house broke.
Habitat DeKalb also advances toward housing affordability by:
- Teaching volunteers and prospective homeowners basic home maintenance skills to reduce costly emergency repairs
- Providing education around budgeting and planning for anticipated major home expenses
- Advocating for housing policy alongside other organizations to address systemic cost pressures facing homeowners
- Partnering with local businesses to provide critical home repair services for qualified seniors and veterans in DeKalb County
These efforts help families remain safely housed long after the purchase, not just at the moment they move in.
Turning Homeownership Into Long-Term Stability
The real measure of success in housing is not how many homes are built or how many families receive keys. It is whether those families can remain stably housed years later without being financially overextended.
That requires a model that goes beyond affordability at the point of purchase. It requires lower construction costs, sustainable mortgage structures, practical education, access to repairs, and advocacy that addresses the long-term cost pressures families face.
Habitat DeKalb operates within that full continuum. By reducing build costs through donations and volunteer labor, offering a zero-equivalent mortgage that allows families to build financial resilience, providing repair support and home maintenance education, and working alongside partners to advance housing policy, Habitat DeKalb addresses the realities of homeownership head-on.
Homeownership alone is not the solution. Sustainable, affordable homeownership is.
That is the gap Habitat DeKalb seeks to fill.
See how you can partner with us to create lasting change.
Happy New Year!