The Dollar Kids by Jennifer Richard Jacobson

They live in the city in an apartment but Lowden reads about a town that is selling run down houses for a dollar.  You have to have three children to help with the sports teams and you have to bring the houses up to safety standards.  They apply, and they get picked...

Candlewick Press and Net Galley let me read this book for review (thank you).  It has been published and you can buy a copy now.

His mother sets up a Cornish Pastry shop and is doing fairly well at sales.  Then they drop off.  The restaurant next door is competing with them and changes their hours to match the pastry shop.  The income she thought she could contribute to house repair is gone.

Not only that, all the children that came in are referred to as dollar kids and are not included with in other kid's groups.

As they continue to live there, they enjoy living in the small town.  They might not have many friends, but they have each other.  And the kids work on the house with their parents.

It looks like they will lose their home because they can't get the repairs done in time, but they help an old man whose house is facing foreclosure.  And miracles do happen...