Down payment help in Miami-Dade: what actually exists
They exist, they are public funds, and you apply for them. Three come from Miami-Dade County and three from the state of Florida.
Six programs
How much you get depends on your income, on where the home is, and on which one you apply for. Each has its own cap and conditions, listed one by one below.
The county figures carry their official source, linked, and the day a person read it.
A lot of people give up because they are twenty or thirty thousand dollars short at closing. 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.
What Miami-Dade County offers
Miami-Dade has its own pot of assistance, separate from the state. These are the three main programs:
Note the word deferred: you make no monthly payment on that money. It is repaid when you sell, refinance, or stop living there. That matters a great deal, because it means it does not raise your DTI and therefore does not shrink the house the bank approves you for.
The question to always ask
Is it forgivable or repaid? A forgivable loan disappears if you stay the number of years the program requires. A deferred one does not disappear: it just waits.
Of the three county programs, none says in writing that it is forgiven: all three are deferred, meaning they come back when you sell, refinance, or stop living in the home. The one that is forgiven outright is HFA Preferred PLUS, from the state, in the table below. That is why you ask in writing, and you ask the lender.
And there is a condition on the $35,000 program 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.
What the State of Florida offers
Florida Housing runs its own programs that stack on top of the county ones. They always attach to a mortgage from a participating lender:
| Program | How much | Terms |
|---|---|---|
| Florida Assist | Up to $10,000 | 0% interest, deferred. Not forgiven: repaid on sale or refinance. |
| FL HLP Second | $12,500 | 3% interest, with a monthly payment, over 30 years. |
| HFA Preferred PLUS | 3%, 4% or 5% of the loan | Forgiven at 20% per year over 5 years. After 5 years you owe nothing. |
HFA Preferred PLUS is the only one on the list that forgives itself. Buying with 4% on a $400,000 loan is $16,000 that stops being debt if you stay five years.
The requirement they all share
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 HUD-approved agencies 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. People leave it for last and then delay closing by weeks over a piece of paper that was free.
How to apply, in order
- Find out how much you actually needBefore calling anyone, have the number: down payment plus closing costs, minus what you have. Without that figure you do not even know which program fits.
- Check whether your income falls in rangeThese programs run on a percentage of area median income and on family size. The limits are published and change every year.
- Take the homebuyer courseFree, through a HUD-approved agency. Walk out with the certificate in hand.
- Find 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.
- Apply 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.
We help you file yours.
These funds are submitted by the lender, not by you, and not every lender works with them. Leave your number and we take it from there with you.
What to be clear about
- 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 first mortgage and all assistance together stay under 105% of the purchase price — or of the appraisal, if that comes in lower. That limit, not the number of programs, is what decides how much you can actually put together.
Amounts, income limits, and fund availability for these programs change, and this guide was written in August 2026. Always confirm current figures with Miami-Dade County, MDEAT, or Florida Housing before making a decision. This guide orients you; it is not financial advice or a guarantee of eligibility.
Keep reading
If you want to know how much you are short —down payment plus closing costs, minus what you have— Umbralio works it out in 8 steps. No credit pull, no Social Security number.
See my assessment