First-Time Homebuyer Programs

Every program open to a first time home buyer in Florida: down payment assistance, tax credits, reduced rates, and how they stack.

You may be a first time home buyer in Florida even if you have owned a home

The term is misleading, and it costs people money every year.

Almost every program here defines a first-time buyer as someone who has not owned a principal residence in the past three years. Therefore if you sold in 2021 and have rented since, you qualify again. So does someone who owned a home with a former spouse and has not owned since the divorce, and in many cases someone who owned only a manufactured home not permanently affixed to land.

Veterans and active-duty service members usually skip the requirement altogether, as do buyers purchasing inside designated targeted areas. Since assuming you are ineligible is the most common way people miss out, check the three-year rule against your own history before you rule anything out.

Your loan options

• FHA: 3.5% down with credit accepted from 580
• VA: no down payment for eligible veterans, and no mortgage insurance at all
• USDA: no down payment in eligible rural and suburban areas
• Conventional 97, HomeReady and Home Possible: 3% down, with mortgage insurance that ends

Assistance you can layer on top

• Hometown Heroes: up to 5% of the loan, capped at $35,000, for 50+ eligible occupations
• FL Assist: $10,000 as a 0% deferred second mortgage
• HFA Preferred and Advantage: below-market rates plus assistance and reduced mortgage insurance
• Mortgage Credit Certificate: up to $2,000 a year as a federal tax credit
• County programs, which stack on the state ones; see the full assistance guide

The order these decisions happen in

Choose the assistance first, then the loan. That sounds backwards, yet the assistance carries the tighter rules. Hometown Heroes requires a Florida Housing approved lender and an eligible first mortgage, so picking a lender who cannot originate it removes the option before you have started.

Then book the homebuyer education course early. Nearly every Florida assistance program requires a HUD-approved course, and buyers routinely discover this the week they want to close.

Florida-specific notes

• Hometown Heroes operates in all 67 counties, and its income ceiling of 150% of county median reaches further than most people assume
• Assistance funding runs in annual cycles and does run out, so apply early in the cycle
• File for the homestead exemption after closing, since it lowers your property tax bill for as long as you live there
• Budget insurance properly from the start, because in Florida it can add more to the payment than the taxes do

Source: Florida Housing Finance Corporation, 2026 program terms. Definitions of first-time buyer status and income limits vary slightly between programs; confirm yours before you apply.