Homesteading Program

The Homesteading program is a vehicle to homeownership for families that do not have access through conventional means and are willing to put in sweat equity, mitigating blight and saving homes.

Our Development Story

For over a decade, Price Hill Will’s Homesteading Program has created a pathway to homeownership for families who are often excluded from traditional mortgage systems, but fully capable of sustaining ownership when given the right opportunity and support. Today, Homesteading is one of Cincinnati’s strongest community-based affordable homeownership models.

Because of Homesteading

  • Families in Price Hill now own homes

  • Children grow up with stability

  • Our neighborhood is growing stronger

  • Generational wealth is built where is otherwise may never have existed.

Help us turn Houses to Homes

Affordable houses in need of rehabilitation remains the top need for our Homesteading program. If you have a home in the Price Hill community you are looking to reasonably sell. Contact jim@pricehillwill.org

“Owning a house in this country, I think it is one of the biggest blessings... there are many difficulties, especially when there are immigration limitations to be able to own a house, but being able to have the house through the community is an incredible opportunity.”  

-Homesteading Family

How it Works

A Different Path to Homeownership

Price Hill Will acquires vacant and distressed single-family homes, completes major system repairs, and creates an affordable pathway to ownership through income-based land contracts that lead to full homeownership.

Families complete financial counseling and homeownership preparation through trusted partners including Santa Maria Community Services and Working in Neighborhoods. Monthly payments are structured to remain affordable, typically no more than 25% of household income.

Families build financial stability while learning home maintenance, budgeting, and long-term ownership responsibilities.

In 5 to 8 years, upon successful completion of the land contract period, ownership transfers to the family outright.

This creates more than affordable housing.

  • Stability

  • Equity

  • Generational Wealth

  • Neighborhood Reinvestment

Homesteading goes beyond housing. It is a pathway out of poverty and into long‑term ownership and stability.

PHW Is Effectively the Bank

Families make affordable payments directly to Price Hill Will rather than through traditional lenders. This allows families to succeed.

It also means PHW carries the financial responsibility.

Current land contract receivables: $600,000+

PHW is preserving affordability by carrying these receivables. This creates real liquidity pressure.

Why the PHW Difference Matters

Families are not entering a housing program. They are entering a community.

Homesteading connects to:

  • MYCincinnati Youth Orchestra

  • ARCO

  • Warsaw Avenue Creative Campus

  • Family-centered neighborhood trust

  • Long-term neighborhood stabilization

Approximately 22% of Homesteading families have youth connected to MYCincinnati.