How Down-Payment Assistance Could Work for Buying this Home

The California Housing Finance Agency (CaIHFA) offers two layers of assistance that can substantially reduce the amount of cash needed for a first-time home purchase by helping out with both down payment and closing costs. Here’s how it works:

• Use an FHA primary loan under the CalPlus program, which has a 3.5% minimum down payment – This is the loan you’ll be making payments on.
• Use a MyHome assistance loan to cover the down payment – No payments except to pay off when you sell or refinance
• Use a Zero Interest Program loan to cover some of the closing costs – No payments except to pay off when you sell or refinance

We had our lender partner run the numbers for a purchase price of $260,000, the current rate of 3.125% ( on 9/23/2020), the minimum FICO score of 660, and here’s how they came out.