Down payment help in Miami-Dade: what actually exists

A lot of people give up because they are twenty or thirty thousand dollars short at closing (the day you sign and get the keys). And it turns out county and state programs exist that hand over roughly that amount. There is no trick to it: these are public funds with clear rules that almost nobody uses, because almost nobody knows they are there.

Miami-Dade has its own pot of assistance, separate from the state. These are the three main programs:

These loans are deferred, which means the payment is put off: you make no monthly payment on that money. It is repaid when you sell, when you replace your loan with a new one (refinance), or when you stop living there. That matters a great deal, because it means it does not raise the share of your monthly income that goes to paying debts (DTI) and therefore does not shrink the house the bank approves you for.

And there is a condition on both county loans, the $35,000 one and the $100,000 one, that almost nobody mentions: sell the home within the first 3 years and, on top of repaying the loan, you hand over 100% of the profit from that sale. Years 4 through 6, you hand over 50%. From year 7 on, nothing. This is not fine print: it is the difference between assistance and a partner in your house.

Florida Housing, the state housing agency, runs its own programs that stack on top of the county ones. They always attach to a loan from a participating lender:

Of the three state programs, HFA Preferred PLUS is the only one you do not have to pay back. If you get 4% of a $400,000 loan, that is $16,000 that stops being debt if you stay five years.

Nearly all of this money requires the same thing: a homebuyer education certificate. Florida Housing requires it for all its programs, and the county does too.

The good news is that several agencies approved by the federal housing department (HUD) in Miami-Dade run that course for free, and several run it in Spanish. It is not an expensive step: it is a step you have to know exists.

Take the course before you have a house under contract (your offer accepted). People leave it for last and then delay closing by weeks over a piece of paper that was free.

1. 1Find out how much you actually needBefore calling anyone, have the number: down payment plus the closing costs (the fees you pay at closing), minus what you have. Without that figure you do not even know which program fits.
2. 2Check whether your income falls in rangeThese programs depend on what percentage of the typical income in the area you earn, and on how many people are in your family. The limits are published and change every year.
3. 3Take the homebuyer courseFree, through a HUD-approved agency. Walk out with the certificate in hand.
4. 4Find a participating lenderAlmost all of this money is requested through the lender, not directly by you. If your lender does not work with the program, they cannot ask for it on your behalf.
5. 5Apply before the money runs outThese are limited pots that empty and reopen. Being ready when they reopen is the difference between getting in and missing it.

• It is not free money in the "no strings" sense. It almost always requires the home to be your primary residence and that you stay a minimum number of years.
• Funds run out. This is not a window that is always open; it opens, fills up, and closes.
• The lender is the door. Picking one that does not work with these programs leaves you out without you ever learning why.
• County and state do combine — but only one state program. Florida Housing lets a county program sit on top of its own, on one condition: the county loan gets paid last, behind the state one. What it does not allow is stacking two of its own — of the three state options, you pick one.
• And there is a ceiling: 105%. The county programs require that the main loan and all assistance together stay under 105% of the purchase price — or of the appraisal (when an expert says what the home is worth), if that comes in lower. That limit, not the number of programs, is what decides how much you can actually put together.