Home financing in Queens County.
County-by-county financing guides. No paperwork. No social. No ID.
11 institutions are headquartered inside the Queens County line, and 4 more keep a branch here. Below, we say which is which.
Not this lane? Business FinancingPersonal Financing
The doors in Queens County.
The CDFIs, credit unions, and microlenders that actually say yes — county by county, in two languages. We are not a lender. Nobody paid to be listed. And where a county has no good doors, we say so.
- 15
- DOORS HERE
- 11
- BASED HERE
- 56
- NY COUNTIES WITH DOORS
- Lane
- Home Financing
- People
- 2.4Mresidents of Queens County
- Elsewhere in NY
- New York County →51 doors — the biggest list of any other county in New York
- State
- New York →56 of 62 counties hold a door in this lane
Certified by the U.S. Treasury to lend where a bank will not. Nonprofit, patient, and used to a file that is not clean.
Greater Jamaica Local Development Company, Inc. · Urban Upbound Credit UnionOwned by their members, not by shareholders. They look at your whole story rather than a score, and that is the difference when a bank says no.
Everest Credit Union · Greater Metro Credit Union- Everest Credit UnionMinority depositoryPersonal · Home · Business capital
- Greater Metro Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
- Italo-American Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
- Korean American Catholics Credit UnionMinority depositoryPersonal · Home
- Medisys Employees Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
- IN THIS LIST
2 of the 15 doors inside the county line are CDFI-certified.
The U.S. Treasury certifies them to lend to the people banks pass over. It is a loan, not a favour.
- Qside Credit UnionPersonal · Home
- Triboro Postal Credit UnionPersonal · Home
- Greater Jamaica Local Development Company, Inc.Community lending · Business capital
Show the other 3Show fewer
- Far Rockaway Postal Credit UnionMinority depositoryPersonal
- Paul Quinn Credit UnionMinority depositoryPersonal
- Urban Upbound Credit UnionCDFI-certifiedMinority depositoryPersonal
Based elsewhere, with a member-facing office inside the Queens County line. You can walk in.
- Local 804 Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
- Municipal Credit UnionMinority depositoryPersonal · Home
- Polish & Slavic Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
- Sts Peter & Paul Credit UnionPersonal
- Mission Asset FundAccepts ITIN
Zero-interest lending circles and credit building. SSN or ITIN accepted. Works through nonprofit partners across the country.
Personal - Accion Opportunity FundAccepts ITIN
Nonprofit small-business lender. Accepts ITIN in place of SSN. Serves most states, in English and Spanish.
Business capital - Grameen AmericaAccepts ITIN
Microloans for women entrepreneurs. Requires photo ID and proof of address — no SSN requirement. Branches in major metro areas.
Business capital
Nobody paid to be on this list.
The 15 doors inside the county line come off public data, and 14 of them are owned by their own members. We do not ask for your name, and we earn nothing if you knock on one door rather than another.
How to read this list.
We do not ask for your name, your email, or your number. Nothing on this page changes based on who you are.
A door is headquartered here when its head office sits inside the county line. The rest are based elsewhere and keep a branch you can walk into. We list both, and we label which is which.
Every institution on this page comes from public federal data — the CDFI Fund certified list (Aug 2026), NCUA credit union data (Jun 2026), and the SBA microloan intermediary list (Sep 2026) — plus a short national tier we verified by hand. We refresh each list as its agency publishes. No listing is paid.
Queens County is a borough of more than 2.4 million people where the dream is usually not a single-family house — it is a two-family in Jamaica or Ozone Park, a co-op in Rego Park, a condo in Flushing, or the building you already rent in. This guide explains how home financing actually works in Queens, who qualifies when your income is 1099 or comes from more than one household member, what documents you will need, which institutions are genuinely based in the borough, and the New York rules that catch first-time buyers. It also covers ITIN realities and the traps that target Queens homeowners.
It's a process, not a rejection.
Home financing means borrowing to buy, keep, or improve a place to live. The plain shapes:
- A purchase mortgage — the loan that buys the property, repaid over many years.
- A refinance — replacing your current mortgage with a new one, usually to lower the payment or pull out equity.
- A home equity loan or line of credit (HELOC) — borrowing against equity you already have, for repairs, a roof, or debt you want to consolidate.
- A renovation or rehab loan — money for the work folded into the purchase or refinance.
- Down payment and closing-cost assistance — public and nonprofit programs, usually for first-time buyers under an income limit.
What makes Queens different from almost every other county in America is the housing stock. Buying here usually means one of four things, and each one is financed differently:
One-to-four-family houses. The Queens classic — a two-family in Jamaica, Queens Village, Ozone Park, Richmond Hill, Corona, or Springfield Gardens where the rental unit helps carry the mortgage. Lenders will often count a portion of that rental income toward qualifying, which is the single most useful fact in this guide.
Co-ops. You are not buying real estate; you are buying shares in a corporation that owns the building, with the right to occupy an apartment. The loan is a share loan, not a mortgage, and not every lender writes them. On top of the lender's approval you need the co-op board's approval, and the board can say no for its own reasons.
Condos. Real property, financed with a normal mortgage, but the lender also underwrites the building — its reserves, its owner-occupancy, its litigation.
Two-to-four-unit buildings bought as investment. Different underwriting, larger down payment, and the property's own income matters more than yours.
The practical consequence: in Queens, the question "who will lend to me?" cannot be answered until you answer "what kind of property am I buying?" A lender who is excellent on two-families may not write co-op share loans at all.
Forget what the banks say.
A mortgage lender is weighing four things: your income and how documentable it is, your debts against that income, your credit, and your cash for down payment and closing.
Queens households often look unusual on all four, in ways that are completely normal here:
- Multiple earners in one household. Two or three working adults, sometimes across generations, buying together. This is a strength, not a problem — but everyone whose income is used has to be on the loan, and everyone on the loan gets their credit pulled.
- 1099 and self-employed income. Trades, drivers, home care workers, salon owners. Underwriters read your net after deductions, not your gross. Two years of returns is the usual bar, and aggressive write-offs will cost you borrowing power.
- Second and third jobs. Common and usable, but lenders want to see history, not a job you started last month.
- Rental income from the unit you are buying. For a two- to four-family, a portion of projected rent can count toward qualifying. Ask each lender exactly how they treat it — the answers differ, and the difference is large.
- Thin or no credit file. If you have paid cash for everything your whole life, you may have no score at all. Some lenders can build a manual underwrite from rent receipts, utility bills, and insurance payments. Ask for it by name.
Down payment. You do not need a giant down payment to buy in Queens. FHA-insured loans, VA loans for veterans, and various low-down-payment conventional programs all exist here, and public and nonprofit down-payment assistance is aimed exactly at first-time buyers in this borough.
What you do need is to be able to document where the money came from — gift letters, seasoned deposits, a paper trail.
Cash that appears in your account the week before closing will stop the loan cold.
ITIN. A mortgage with an ITIN instead of a Social Security number is harder, but it is not a legal impossibility — some portfolio lenders and community institutions do it, on their own terms, usually with a larger down payment.
No one should promise you an ITIN mortgage sight unseen.
Ask each institution directly whether they lend to ITIN holders, and do not give up after two noes.
Get your papers in order.
Home lending asks for more paper than any other lane. Build the folder once and reuse it with every lender you interview.
- 01**Government-issued photo ID** for every borrower
- 02**SSN or ITIN** for every borrower
- 03**Federal tax returns for the last two years**, all schedules, plus W-2s or 1099s
- 04**Pay stubs** for the last 30 days if you are on payroll
- 05**Bank statements** for the last two to three months — every account you will use for down payment or reserves
- 06**Profit-and-loss and business bank statements** if you are self-employed
- 07**Proof of rent paid**
Canceled checks, money order receipts, or a landlord letter, especially if your credit file is thin
- 08**The signed purchase contract** once you are under contract
- 09**For a co-op**
The board application package, which is its own mountain of paper — financial statements, reference letters, and often an interview
- 10**For a two- to four-family**
Existing leases and rent history if the units are occupied
- 11**Gift letters** from anyone contributing to your down payment
- 12
**Immigration or residency documentation** where the loan program requires proof of lawful residency — ask up front which programs do, so you do not waste an application
The doors worth knowing.
Queens has real member-owned institutions inside the county line.
ALL 15 DOORS, BY NAME AND BY TOWN- 15
- DOORS HERE
- 101
- ACROSS NY
Based in Jackson Heights, New York. A credit union — owned by its members rather than by shareholders, which is exactly what changes the conversation after a bank has said no. It is a minority depository.
BEST FORA personal loan, or building a credit file from nothing, and buying, repairing or refinancing a home.Based in Long Island Cit, New York. A member-owned credit union, which means the people deciding on your file answer to depositors in the same towns you work in.
BEST FORBuying, repairing or refinancing a home, and working capital, equipment and payroll for a small business.Based in Glendale, New York. A credit union: no shareholders to satisfy, and a habit of reading a whole story rather than a single score.
BEST FORWorking capital, equipment and payroll for a small business, and a personal loan, or building a credit file from nothing.Based in Flushing, New York. A credit union — owned by its members rather than by shareholders, which is exactly what changes the conversation after a bank has said no.
BEST FORBuying, repairing or refinancing a home, and a personal loan, or building a credit file from nothing.
Don't fall into these traps.
Queens has been targeted for decades by people who make money when a homeowner loses a house. Know the shapes.
If you fall behind and someone offers to take title "temporarily" while you rent it back and repair your credit, you are being asked to sign away your house. Never sign a deed to anyone who is not buying the property at arm's length with your own attorney reading the papers. This is the most serious risk on this page.
Charging you in advance to negotiate with your servicer is prohibited in most circumstances, and HUD-approved counselors do the same work for free.
A refinance that lowers your payment while adding years and fees can quietly cost you the equity you spent twenty years building. Compare the total cost over the life of the loan, not just the monthly payment.
A roofer who arranges the loan is not a lender and has no duty to you. Arrange financing separately from the work. Verify that any contractor working in New York City holds the required license.
In the United States a notary public is not an attorney. Anyone charging you to fill out forms a HUD counselor completes free is overcharging you, and anyone promising a mortgage approval in exchange for a cash fee is running a scam.
Not predatory — just fatal. Money that cannot be traced will kill your approval at the last minute.
No legitimate lender needs you to sign tonight, and nothing is real until it is in writing on the Loan Estimate and the Closing Disclosure. Read both. Compare them to each other.
Everything below is set by New York, and it reads the same in every county in it. The 15 marks above are this county's own doors — who opens one is decided by them, not by the state.
The rules where you are.
Unlike much of the country, a residential purchase here runs through lawyers on both sides. Budget for your own attorney and hire one who represents *you* — not one handed to you by the seller or the agent. This is the most valuable dollar you will spend in the transaction.
New York charges a mortgage recording tax on most new mortgages, and New York City adds its own transfer taxes on sales. You will also see title insurance and attorney fees. Ask every lender for a written **Loan Estimate** — it is a standardized federal form, so it lets you compare two lenders line by line rather than by vibe.
Because a co-op is shares, the taxes and the loan mechanics differ from a house, the board can reject you, and flip taxes or sublet rules can affect what you can do later. Read the building's rules before you fall in love with the apartment.
New York's housing finance agencies operate first-time homebuyer mortgage channels and down-payment assistance for buyers under income limits, and there are state and city programs aimed at repairs and at one-to-four-family owners. Terms, income caps, and openings change — get current details from a HUD-approved housing counselor rather than from any directory, this one included.
**FHA** loans allow lower down payments and more forgiving credit; **VA** loans serve veterans and service members; **USDA** rural programs do not apply in Queens. These are delivered by ordinary lenders, not by the agencies themselves, and every lender applies its own additional standards on top.
New York City offers owner-occupancy exemptions and abatements that lower the tax bill for qualifying homeowners, including seniors and veterans. Apply for what you qualify for after you close — it is money most people leave sitting there.
The short version.
- 01
Buying or refinancing a home in Queens County is harder than in most of America, and more possible than most Queens renters believe.
- 02
Start by deciding what you are buying — a one-to-four-family, a co-op, or a condo — because that answer decides which lenders can even help you. Then talk to a free HUD-approved housing counselor before you talk to a lender. They will tell you where your file actually stands and which assistance programs you qualify for, and they will not sell you anything.
- 03
The credit unions and community development organizations based in Queens, listed above, are worth calling early. They are small, they are member-owned, and they sometimes write loans that big lenders will not. Ask each one two questions: can I join, and do you finance this kind of property? If you file with an ITIN, ask directly — and keep asking past the first no.
- 04
Hire your own attorney. Get a written Loan Estimate from at least two lenders and compare them line by line. Document every dollar of your down payment. And never, under any circumstances, sign your deed over to someone promising to save your home.
Same county, another question.
Business FinancingLoans, lines of credit, and capital for small businesses and contractorsSEE IT IN QUEENS COUNTY →
Personal FinancingPersonal loans, credit building, and ITIN-friendly financing optionsSEE IT IN QUEENS COUNTY →56NY COUNTIES WITH DOORSThe whole stateEvery county in New York, in this same lane.101 institutions fund homes and repairs inside New York county lines.OPEN THE STATE →Still don't see your situation?
Ask Iris. She'll explain it the way it should have been explained the first time.