Editorial policy

Who we write for

We write for families who want to understand housing in the United States in their own language. That is why:

• Spanish comes first. Every page is written in Spanish and has its English version.
• We speak plainly. Short sentences, no banker’s words. When we use a financial term, we explain it and link it to the glossary.
• We give the English terms you will see on your papers, such as closing disclosure or escrow, so you recognize them.

Primary sources only

Every rule, number and deadline comes from the source that publishes or sets it: the law, the government agency, the court, the program’s official document or the official dataset. A news story, a blog or a bank’s page never serves as the source of a rule.

If we can’t confirm in the source that a rule is still in effect, we don’t publish it.

Every number with its source and date

• The site’s numbers come from the official data. They aren’t typed by hand into the pages, so they don’t go stale without us noticing.
• Every number says who publishes it and what period it covers.
• If a number is missing, we say so. We never put in a filler number.
• When we calculate something, we say so and explain the formula in the methodology.

Dated reviews

Everything that doesn’t come from a dataset we check again against its source:

• Assistance programs, state rules and tenant rights: at least every 180 days.
• Guides about rules that change fast, such as immigration rules: at least every 90 days.
• Glossary definitions: at least every 365 days.
• Loan rules (the minimum down payment, mortgage insurance, fees): each one has its own date to be checked again.
• Interest rates: updated every week from Freddie Mac’s survey, and you see the date.

Every guide and every program shows the date of its last review. If the review of a program or a rule falls behind, the page tells you.

Neutral, with no promises

• We explain what official sources say. We don’t give advice for your case.
• We don’t promise that you will be approved for a loan, that you will qualify for a program or that you will save money.
• The calculators give estimates and tell you which assumptions they use, so you can change them.
• When a rule is proposed, blocked by a court or changed recently, we say so.
• For your case, we send you to free, qualified help: HUD-approved housing counselors, free legal aid, representatives accredited by the Department of Justice and free tax preparation.

Fair housing

We support equal housing opportunity. That is why:

• We never rank, filter or recommend places by the race, origin, language or religion of the people who live there.
• We never say a place is for a group of people, and we never describe it as good or bad for someone because of who they are.
• Language data and data about who lives in a place are shown the same way on every page, for every place.

Ads and partners

Today the site has no ads and no partners. If it ever does:

• Ads will go in marked spaces, and never on pages about immigration status, emergencies, scams or domestic violence.
• Every partner link will say it is from a partner and that we may be paid. Your details will go to the partner, on its page; never to us.
• A partner never changes a fact, a number, a list of programs or an order. What the guides and data pages say doesn’t depend on who pays.
• Nobody pays to appear in the program directory or in the list of free help.

Errors

If we find an error, we fix it on the page and change its review date. Every correction is logged in the corrections log at the end of this page: the date, the page and what changed, in Spanish and in English.

When a source publishes new data, that is not an error: the page updates and you see the new date.

We do not have an inbox for reports yet. We are preparing a way to tell us about an error from the site; when it exists, you will see it at the bottom of every page. There will never be a form that asks for your details: the page’s address and what is wrong will be enough.