Octavia, 27, moved to Denver from Omaha in 2024 and wanted to buy a home of her own. She works as a senior technician at a computer store and was living with three roommates. In a story Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver published Sept. 25, 2026, she says she had been saving for a house without being sure she could ever afford one.
Then a postcard arrived advertising a two-bedroom Habitat home in Aurora at a price she could afford. It was addressed to one of her roommates, who had thrown it out. “It fell in my lap,” she says in Habitat’s story, adding that she would not have found out about the house if she had not seen the card.
A Habitat house, sold a second time
Habitat says it built the house several decades ago. When the previous owner moved out, they sold it back to the nonprofit, which fixed it up for another qualified buyer. Staff and volunteers laid new carpet, installed new kitchen appliances and cabinets, painted every room and upgraded the bathroom. The bungalow has a large front porch, a backyard and a two-car garage.
Octavia also took Habitat’s homeownership classes. She told the nonprofit she already knew a fair amount about closings, but the classes taught her what goes into a mortgage payment: taxes, interest and principal. She says she is following in her mother’s footsteps. Her plans for the place: decorate with her partner, paint the living room sage green, add a patio with an awning out back and grow her first tomatoes.
By the numbers
- 27: Octavia’s age
- 2024: the year she moved to Denver from Omaha
- 3: roommates she was living with when the postcard came
- 2: bedrooms in the Aurora house
- 30%: the share of a family’s gross monthly income that Habitat says its mortgage payments will not exceed
- $74,800: the current income ceiling for a one-person household in the program, which Habitat sets at 80% of area median income ($106,800 for a household of four)
How to help, or how to apply
- Apply: Habitat says its homeownership info session is mandatory before applying, and that buyers apply for a specific home. Its homeownership page lists what is available now, including Griffith Station Homes in Arvada, Villa Park Homes in Denver and renovated homes around the metro area.
- Volunteer: Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver volunteer page
- Donate: Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver donation page
- Questions: Habitat’s Homeowner Services line is 720-496-2726. It asks callers to allow up to two business days for a response.
More like this: Find the Good, Aurora, A Habitat build day in Boulder on Oct. 17, Arvada housed 65 people from Olde Town four months early, A Denver Foundation scholarship for nonprofit employees
