Press Release
7/13/10-Mayor Gavin Newsom announced today that the Mayor’s Office of Housing will once again begin taking applications for down payment assistance loans beginning August 1st. The DALP is a revolving loan fund that assists low and moderate income first time homebuyers in purchasing market rate homes in San Francisco. Last year, due to overwhelming demands on the fund, the Mayor’s Office of Housing temporarily restricted available funds to only those purchasing properties through short sales or in foreclosure. Because of repayments into the fund, the Mayor’s Office of Housing will once again make down payment assistance loans to anyone who qualifies purchasing any market rate single-family unit in San Francisco.
“Owning a home in San Francisco need no longer be a dream out of reach for hundreds of low and middle income families,” said Mayor Newsom. “Our down payment assistance loan program can help families achieve homeownership at a time when homes in San Francisco are more affordable than at any time in recent memory.”
As always, the DALP can be used along with other existing programs for first time homebuyers, such as mortgage credit certificates, and low interest loans through CalHFA.
To qualify for the DALP, a potential buyer must be purchasing a single family home in San Francisco; earn no more than 120% of the Area Median Income, and have gone through a homebuyer counseling through an approved agency. DALP funds can be used for homes with a purchase price limit of $637,645; the maximum loan amount available is the lesser of $100,000 or 20% of the purchase price. The amount of the loan depends on the family’s income – families with lower incomes qualify for a larger loan.
Potential buyers who are interested in a DALP loan should contact a homeownership counseling agency. Information on the process can be found at www.homeownershipsf.org. Once someone has gone through homebuyer counseling, and identified a property, they must work through an approved lender to submit an application for DALP. A list of approved lenders, along with the details of the program’s guidelines are available at www.sfgov.org/moh, under assistance for homebuyers.