Home financing in Travis County.
County-by-county financing guides. No paperwork. No social. No ID.
16 institutions are headquartered inside the Travis County line, Austin included, and 2 more keep a branch here. Below, we say which is which.
Not this lane? Business FinancingPersonal Financing
The doors in Travis 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.
- 18
- DOORS HERE
- 16
- BASED HERE
- 108
- TX COUNTIES WITH DOORS
- Lane
- Home Financing
- People
- 1.3Mresidents of Travis County
- Covers
- Austin
- Elsewhere in TX
- Harris County →51 doors — the biggest list of any other county in Texas
- State
- Texas →108 of 254 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.
Star of Texas Credit Union · Business and Community Lenders (BCL) of TexasOwned 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.
A+ Credit Union · Austin Credit Union- A+ Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
- Austin Credit UnionPersonal · Home
- Capitol Credit UnionPersonal · Home
- Government Employees Credit UnionPersonal · Home
- Greater Texas Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
- IN THIS LIST
7 of the 18 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.
- Star of Texas Credit UnionCDFI-certifiedMinority depositoryPersonal · Home
- Travis County Credit UnionPersonal · Home
- University Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
Show the other 8Show fewer
- Velocity Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
- Business and Community Lenders (BCL) of TexasCommunity lending · Business capital
- Business Investment GrowthCommunity lending · Business capital
- Five Points Community Capital, LLCCommunity lending · Business capital
- PeopleFundSBA microlenderCommunity lending · Business capital
- Texas Community CapitalCommunity lending · Business capital
- The Community Business Investment Fund, LLCCommunity lending · Business capital
- Vatat Credit UnionPersonal
Based elsewhere, with a member-facing office inside the Travis County line. You can walk in.
- Baker Hughes Credit UnionMinority depositoryPersonal · Home
- Nizari Progressive Credit UnionMinority depositoryPersonal · Home · Business capital
- 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 18 doors inside the county line come off public data, and 12 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.
Buying in Travis County means two numbers decide everything: the mortgage payment and the property tax bill, and in Texas the second is bigger than newcomers expect. This guide explains the kinds of home loans that exist, who qualifies when your income comes from a trade or from shifts, what documents underwriters ask for, which institutions in and around Austin hold mortgages on their own books, what Texas law adds to a closing, and which offers to walk away from.
It's a process, not a rejection.
Home financing is a loan secured by the house itself. The main shapes are a purchase mortgage, a refinance that replaces a loan you already have, a home equity loan or line of credit that borrows against value you have built, a renovation loan that funds repairs inside the mortgage, and down payment assistance, which is usually a second loan or a grant layered underneath the first mortgage rather than a mortgage itself.
Travis County holds roughly 1.29 million people, and its housing market has one dominant feature: Austin got expensive, and working households moved outward to stay in it. The practical search for many families runs east and southeast — Del Valle, Manor, the eastern edge of the county — and often across the county line entirely. The housing stock you are choosing between is unusually mixed: older homes in central and east Austin, condos and townhomes, large newer subdivisions on the edges, and land with manufactured or site-built homes in the rural east.
Each type finances differently.
A condo brings the association's finances into your approval.
A manufactured home is a mortgage if titled as real property on land you own, and usually a shorter, costlier chattel loan if it is not. A new subdivision outside city limits often sits inside a special taxing district, which adds to the tax rate and therefore to your monthly payment — the single most common budget surprise in this county.
And here is the Texas piece to plan around: with no state income tax, property taxes carry the local load. Your escrow for taxes can be a large share of the payment, and in the first year after a new build it is frequently estimated too low, then jumps. Ask for the tax rate of the exact address, not the area.
Forget what the banks say.
An underwriter is answering one question: will this payment be made every month for years? They look at income and its steadiness, debts against that income, credit history, down payment, and the property.
What that means for people earning the way Travis County earns:
- Self-employed and 1099 trades — framers, concrete crews, HVAC and electrical subs, landscapers, tree and pool services, truck owner-operators. Expect two years of tax returns, and understand that underwriters read your net income after write-offs, not what you invoiced. The deductions that cut your tax bill also cut the income you qualify on. Talk to a loan officer before you file your next return.
- Restaurant, bar, hotel, and event workers — tips that run through payroll count; cash tips that never appear on a stub generally do not. Bring several months of stubs so a slow week does not define the file. If your year has a festival-and-conference rhythm, say so and let the lender average it.
- Cleaning, janitorial, and home-service contractors — bank statements showing steady deposits from recurring accounts are strong evidence. Keep the business account separate from the household one.
- Public and institutional employees — state agency, school district, university, and local government workers have the steadiest documentation here, and several credit unions in this county were founded to serve them.
- Households with several earners — bring every documented income. A co-borrower changes what you qualify for.
- First-time buyers — you are the audience for down payment assistance and mortgage credit programs, and more goes unclaimed than claimed.
On ITIN: some lenders run ITIN mortgage programs and many do not. These are usually portfolio loans the institution keeps on its own books, so terms vary widely. Ask each institution directly whether they lend on a home to ITIN holders — some CDFIs and credit unions do. If today's answer is no, the credit-building path below is the answer for next year.
Get your papers in order.
A mortgage file is thick. Gather this before you shop:
- 01**Photo ID** and your **ITIN or SSN**
- 02**Two years of W-2s**
Or **two years of complete tax returns with all schedules** if self-employed
- 03**Recent pay stubs** — usually the last month
- 04**Two to three months of bank statements**, every page, including blank ones
- 05**1099s** if you are paid as a contractor
And a **year-to-date profit-and-loss** if self-employed
- 06**Proof of your down payment source**
Plus a signed gift letter if any comes from family
- 07**Twelve months of rental history**
Cancelled checks or a landlord letter. This matters enormously if your credit file is thin
- 08**Homeowners insurance quote**
And a flood quote if the property sits in a flood zone
- 09**Current mortgage statement and policy** if refinancing
- 10**HOA or condo association documents** if the property is in an association
- 11**The tax rate and any special district assessment for the exact address** — ask the seller or builder in writing
- MISSING ONE?Ask Iris which one you're missing.ASK A QUESTION ↓
The doors worth knowing.
Start with institutions that keep loans on their own books.
ALL 18 DOORS, BY NAME AND BY TOWN- 18
- DOORS HERE
- 182
- ACROSS TX
Based in Austin, Texas. 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 CDFI-certified, and 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 Austin, Texas. 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 Austin, Texas. A credit union: no shareholders to satisfy, and a habit of reading a whole story rather than a single score.
BEST FORA personal loan, or building a credit file from nothing, and buying, repairing or refinancing a home.Based in Austin, Texas. 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 FORA personal loan, or building a credit file from nothing, and buying, repairing or refinancing a home.
Don't fall into these traps.
You pay for years and the deed stays in someone else's name. Miss a payment and you can lose everything you put in, with no equity and none of the protections a mortgage carries. Texas law regulates these arrangements, and they are still where families lose the most. If someone offers you a house "without the bank," have a real estate attorney read the paper before you hand over a dollar.
If there is no recorded plat, no legal water and septic, and no clear title, there is no house coming. Ask for a survey and a title commitment before any money moves.
If the payment you were quoted uses last year's unimproved land value for taxes, your payment will rise sharply after the first reassessment. Ask the lender to quote escrow on the fully assessed value, and ask what happens if the estimate was wrong.
Repeatedly refinancing and rolling closing costs into the balance can leave you owing more on a house you have owned for years. Ask for the total cost over the life of the loan, not just the payment.
When the seller, the lender, the appraiser, and the title company all arrive together, get your own appraisal and your own attorney.
Everything that matters in a mortgage is written. If a loan officer will not put it in the loan estimate, it does not exist. And any fee charged to "lock" or "guarantee" an approval before funding is a theft, not a fee.
do you lend on a home to ITIN holders, and do you report my payments to the credit bureaus?
Everything below is set by Texas, and it reads the same in every county in it. The 18 marks above are this county's own doors — who opens one is decided by them, not by the state.
The rules where you are.
Texas has no state income tax and leans on property taxes instead. Two things follow. File for your **homestead exemption** with the county appraisal district as soon as the home is your primary residence — it lowers the taxable value, and Texas also limits how fast the assessed value of a homesteaded home can rise each year. And you can **protest your appraisal** every single year; people who do it routinely pay less than people who never open the notice.
Many newer subdivisions outside city limits sit inside a municipal utility district or public improvement district that adds its own rate on top of county, school, and city taxes. Two houses at the same price can carry very different monthly payments because of this. Ask for the total tax rate at the specific address, in writing, before you write an offer.
Borrowing against your homestead here comes with constitutional protections: strict limits on how much of the home's value you can borrow against, a required waiting period between application and closing, mandatory written disclosures, and limits on how often you can do it. If a lender is rushing you past any of that, they are rushing you past your own protection.
Closings run through a title company and title insurance is standard; Texas title premiums are set at the state level, so shop the other closing costs and the lender's fees rather than assuming everything is fixed. If a manufactured home is titled as real property on land you own, it can be financed as a mortgage; on leased land, or still titled as personal property, it is usually a chattel loan with shorter terms and higher rates. Converting the title is sometimes possible and can change the financing entirely.
Most residential foreclosures here are non-judicial — there is no court case to slow things down. If you fall behind, call a HUD-approved counselor immediately. Waiting is the most expensive choice available.
The short version.
- 01
In Travis County the mortgage is only half the picture. Property tax is the other half, and it is the half that surprises people — especially in a new subdivision inside a special taxing district, and especially in the second year, when the first low estimate gets corrected. So before you fall in love with an address, get the total tax rate for that exact address in writing and ask the lender to quote your payment on the fully assessed value.
- 02
Then work the doors that hold their own loans. There are credit unions headquartered right here in Austin, one CDFI-certified, and several community development lenders in the city — call each and ask what it lends for. Take a free HUD-approved housing counseling course early; it is often what unlocks down payment assistance. File your homestead exemption the year you move in, and protest your appraisal every year after.
- 03
If you are self-employed, talk to a loan officer before your next tax return is filed, because the write-offs that lower your taxes also lower the income you qualify on.
- 04
Get two written loan estimates and compare the whole page, not just the rate. Ask every lender whether they lend on a home to ITIN holders and whether they report your payments to the credit bureaus.
Same county, another question.
Business FinancingLoans, lines of credit, and capital for small businesses and contractorsSEE IT IN TRAVIS COUNTY →
Personal FinancingPersonal loans, credit building, and ITIN-friendly financing optionsSEE IT IN TRAVIS COUNTY →108TX COUNTIES WITH DOORSThe whole stateEvery county in Texas, in this same lane.182 institutions fund homes and repairs inside Texas 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.