Florida HFA Plus Forgivable Down Payment Assistance (Florida Housing)

• How much: 3%, 4% or 5% of your bank loan, for the down payment and the costs of the day you sign for the home. Which of the three percentages you get, ask your lender.
• How it works: a loan that is forgiven a bit each year. You only pay back what is left if, before it is fully forgiven, you sell the home, put it in someone else’s name, replace your loan with a new one or stop living in it.
• Who: first-time buyers whose household earns no more than the income limit below, and who buy with one specific state loan called FL HFA Advantage PLUS.
• How to apply: through your lender, who requests it together with your loan. The steps are below.

It is run by Florida Housing Finance Corporation. It lends you 3%, 4% or 5% of your bank loan, for the down payment and the costs of the day you sign for the home: a percentage of your loan, not a fixed dollar amount, so what you receive depends on the loan your bank gives you.

It is a loan that gets forgiven little by little: each year 20% of the debt is taken off, and after 5 years you owe nothing. If before those 5 years you sell the home, put it in someone else’s name, replace your loan with a new one or stop living in it, you pay back what is left.

This help is for first-time buyers.

Your household’s yearly income has to be within the limit for the county where you buy:

The help also asks for the following, and we do not ask about it yet in our finder. Confirm it with your lender before you count on it:

• There is no maximum price for the home, but the loan cannot exceed $832,750.
• Your loan has to be that specific state loan (FL HFA Advantage PLUS), which is a regular bank loan: not the 3.5%-down loan or the veterans loan.
• Your credit score has to be 640 or higher.
• You have to take a homebuyer course approved by the federal government before you sign for the home.
• If your loan is a government-backed one (the 3.5%-down loan, the veterans loan or the rural loan), you have to be a permanent resident. With a regular bank loan, living here legally is enough.
• You can only use one Florida Housing purchase assistance in your whole life, so you must not have used one before.

1. 1Check the income limitCompare what your household earns per year with the table above, based on the county where you plan to buy.
2. 2See if this is the help for youCompare it with the other assistance in Miami-Dade and Broward to see which fits you best.See which programs could fit →
3. 3Talk to your lenderAsk whether they can give you the specific state loan this help works with (FL HFA Advantage PLUS). It is a regular bank loan: the federal government loan that asks for a low down payment (FHA) and the veterans loan do not work. If they can, the lender requests the help together with your loan.
4. 4Take the homebuyer courseDo it before you sign for the home. It has to be one approved by the federal government.

It does not stack with another state assistance. It can be added to a county or city one, if that one allows it.

In the assistance finder you can see whether this help fits you, alongside the other Miami-Dade and Broward programs. The Assistance Tracker shows each program’s status with the date we checked it. This guide explains the terms, but it does not replace your lender’s review.

• Florida Housing Finance Corporation — official terms of its programs (Master Term Sheet).