If you are a current customer with JustChoice Lending, 502 Direct Packager, or looking for information on starting the home loan process, please visit the JustChoice Lending website.

JustChoice Lending

Socially Responsible Mortgage Lending

JustChoice Lending (JCL) is Fahe’s single-family mortgage lending division.

Homeownership is one of the best ways to build wealth in this country. It directly translates into community investment, intangibly through families putting down roots, and tangibly through contributions to the local tax base. JCL strengthens communities by offering mortgage products for households of all income levels such as USDA Guaranteed and 502 Direct, Conventional, FHA, and VA loans along with specialty programs which assist with down payment and closing costs.

While Fahe and JustChoice Lending are located in and directly serve Appalachia, we take products to scale by working outside the region in order to make programs more affordable in Appalachia and other underinvested communities. 

In FY23, JCL served 1,237 people, making 524 loans totaling $109,644,456.

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    502 Direct Packaging Network

    The USDA 502 Direct Program is one of the best ways for low-income rural Americans to join in on the experience and benefits of homeownership. Working together through a public/private partnership, the United States Department of Agriculture and Fahe have delivered more than half a billion dollars in USDA 502 Direct mortgages, to serve 3,213 rural households across the U.S.

    The 502 Direct Program has been the backbone of affordable housing finance in rural America for decades. However, since the late 1990’s, repeated cuts to Rural Development budget gradually reduced the department’s presence in rural communities, resulting in slower turnaround for mortgages and uncertainty for housing developers and homebuyers. In an effort to support USDA RD staff and help expedite the 502 Direct process, Fahe led a group of our peers from across the nation to establish a formal Pilot with USDA-RD, creating a public/private partnership that tested, and confirmed, the potential for a nonprofit network to significantly improve the delivery of 502 Direct mortgages. This innovative Pilot became a permanent program in May, 2016.

    Today, Fahe leads a USDA 502 Direct packaging network of 200+ partners in the states of AL, DE, FL, GA, IN, KY, MD, MI, MS, NC, NY, OH, PA, SC, TN, VA, VT, and WV.

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    Supporting access to Homeownership in BIPOC Communities

    BIPOC communities have been historically underserved with access to mortgage products. Fahe partners with many organizations to increase the availability and access to safe and affordable home loans to all communities. We partner with Oweesta Corporation to provide access to secondary mortgage training to Native CDFIS to increase the capacity and capital of these organizations while also addressing the housing needs faced by Native Families.

    Fahe has also partnered with Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC) to expand access to the USDA 502 Direct home mortgage product to rural BIPOC communities. By working with these national partners, we are improving opportunities for financial inclusion, helping to close the racial wealth gap in rural America, and improving the infrastructure and local capacity needed to deploy underutilized existing subsidy to create more BIPOC homeowners.

    Thanks to these efforts and others, in FY23 40% of households served by Fahe were BIPOC.