Testimonials

Soraya moved to New York City from Puerto Rico in March 2020, four days before the COVID lockdown began, with her two children. After a difficult first year navigating a new job, a new city, and a bout with COVID, Soraya found stability and eventually moved into her own rental in Brooklyn. Early on, she decided that owning a home in New York was the goal, both for the security it would offer her family and because she’d fallen in love with the city and wanted to build a life there.

She spent the first several years saving aggressively, setting aside tax returns, part of her salary, and even gifts, all toward a future down payment. A few years in, she landed a job at a hospital, and through her union, learned about a homebuying webinar that connected her to a housing counseling organization. There, she began working closely with financial counselors who helped her build her credit and understand what she could realistically afford.

She spent close to two years watching listings before finding an apartment in Brooklyn through an affordable housing nonprofit. She applied in August 2024. What followed was a long and often stressful approval process, including a board interview and multiple rounds of financial review, before she was approved to move forward with the purchase in early 2025.

The next hurdle was the down payment gap. Soraya applied for a city homebuyer assistance grant to help close the difference, a process that stretched on for eight months without resolution, even as she resubmitted the same documentation multiple times. The delay put real strain on her mortgage approval timeline, and by the time she made the decision to switch lenders in order to keep the deal alive, her credit score had taken a significant hit. She ultimately worked with a different bank that moved quickly to help her close before her purchase window expired.

She closed on her apartment in April 2026, nearly two years after she first applied.

Soraya describes the process as one of the hardest things she’s done but says it was also the moment her family started to feel truly settled. Her children, she says, feel safe for the first time, no longer worried about a landlord or unstable housing. She’s found a home near a park she loves and a neighborhood she and her kids feel connected to.

Her message to others considering homeownership is one of encouragement paired with honesty: it’s possible, but it takes real preparation, patience, and persistence. She hopes future buyers face a smoother, faster path than she did, and that more resources are directed toward the people helping New Yorkers get there.

When K.D. first reached out to NHSNYC, homeownership felt more like a distant dream than a realistic goal. As a first-time homebuyer, she was overwhelmed by rising home prices, confusing mortgage terms, and the fear of making a costly mistake. Like many New Yorkers, she had worked hard to save, but it never seemed like enough.

K.D. began her journey by enrolling in NHSNYC’s homebuyer counseling and education program. Through one-on-one counseling, she learned how to review her credit, understand mortgage products, and build a realistic household budget. She also completed NHSNYC’s homebuyer education classes, gaining a clear understanding of the homebuying process, from pre-approval to closing, and the confidence to ask the right questions along the way.

With her counselor’s guidance, K.D. became mortgage-ready and qualified for the HomeFirst Down Payment Assistance Program, which provided critical funds toward her down payment and closing costs and made an affordable home purchase possible.

As she approached closing, an unexpected setback threatened to derail everything: delays outside her control caused her mortgage rate lock to expire just days before closing. Extending the rate would cost $4,000, which was money she didn’t have. Without it, she risked losing her loan terms, and possibly the home itself.

Recognizing how close she was to the finish line, NHSNYC stepped in again, providing a $4,000 grant to cover the rate extension. That support let her keep her loan terms, proceed to closing, and avoid starting the process over.

Through comprehensive counseling, education, HomeFirst down payment assistance, and NHSNYC’s targeted financial support, K.D. successfully closed on her first home. Today, she’s a proud homeowner.

O.T.’s path to homeownership started with the Bronx, where he grew up. Housing wasn’t always steady for his family, and that experience taught him early how quickly things can change. He’d watched rents in the city climb unpredictably for those not in stabilized units, and it made him want something steadier for himself: a place that was his.

He began the process this past March 2024. At the time, he already held a bachelor’s degree in economics and was enrolled in an MBA program, so he understood the mechanics of homebuying going in. Even so, he found the financial side of the process demanding. Saving enough to close, and to keep something in reserve after closing, is a real hurdle for a lot of buyers in New York City, no matter their background.

That’s where Reverend Charles Butler and the Harlem Congregation for Community Improvement (HCCI) came in. Over a four-week course, Reverend Butler walked O.T. and others through the buying process, common contract pitfalls, and stories from past clients, both the wins and the setbacks. He also connected O.T. to grant opportunities: the NYC First Time Homebuyers Grant and the SONYMA DPAL program among them. Even for programs O.T. didn’t qualify for, Reverend Butler made sure he knew they existed. Just shoot your shot, was the advice.

To make it work, O.T. cut back where he could. He switched to a less expensive gym, cooked more at home, held off on vacations, and kept contributing to his 401k. It meant a real drop in day to day spending, but it let him close without needing much beyond what the grants already covered.

Even with the financing in place, the hardest part of the process wasn’t the money. It was getting an offer accepted. O.T. went to roughly 25 viewings over a year and a half. Each time, he made an offer backed by a covered down payment and closing costs, and each time, he heard that his application wasn’t ready for the co-op board. He eventually found a sponsor unit, which let him bypass the co-op board process. It meant leaving a neighborhood he loved, though not moving far from it.

Along the way, he learned how mortgage underwriting works, how much weight co-op boards place on personal reserves, and how much room exists to negotiate a closing date. His own closing was pushed back by a month or two, something he’d been told to expect but that still tested his patience in the moment.

Looking back, his one regret isn’t financial. It’s that he wishes he’d found more ways to enjoy the process itself, rather than just pushing through it. He closed on his apartment in September 2026.

O.T. hopes more first-time buyers get a clearer picture of what co-op boards look for before they start applying, so they can walk in prepared rather than surprised. He’d also like to see more resources built for Spanish speaking New Yorkers, many of whom, he says, either don’t know these programs exist or hesitate to pursue them because of the language barrier. Expanding access in that direction, he believes, would help even more people reach the same milestone he just did.