Opening Doors in Our Community:
HEART's New Homebuyer Assistance Program
With tightened standards in the home mortgage market and the price of a starter home in San Mateo County still out of reach of most working families, HEART is proud to launch Opening Doors in Our Community, HEART's homebuyer assistance program.
Working with Meriwest Mortgage, a wholly owned subsidiary of the not-for-profit Meriwest Credit Union, HEART has created an entirely new loan package that helps qualified moderate-income families buy their first home in San Mateo County, or to move substantially closer to transit in the county.
- How does the Opening Doors Program work?
- In conjunction with a Meriwest Mortgage first home loan, HEART of San Mateo County offers a below-market rate second loan that will be used to pay some of the closing costs, reduce the first loan’s interest rate, and prepay the private mortgage insurance. HEART makes a second mortgage loan of up to $35,000 to qualified buyers. This is then paired with a first mortgage from Meriwest.
- Who can apply?
- In order to qualify for this loan, you must meet a few specific requirements. There aren’t many of them, but they are important and you must be able to prove that you meet each and every one of them:
- Your Total Household Annual Gross Income must be $150,000 or less. All borrowers’ credit (FICO) scores must be 680 or greater, as defined by the Fair-Isaac scoring system.
- Your Total Household Debt to Income Ratio cannot be more than 45%. That means that when you add up all of your debts, including the expected new home mortgage (such as Principle, Interest, Taxes, and Insurance), any car payments, credit card payments and any and all other debts, loans, charge accounts, and business expenses, if applicable, etc., that you have, those total monthly payments must not be greater than 45% of your Total Monthly Household Gross Income. The purchase price of your new home cannot exceed $700,000.
- A minimum down payment equal to 3% of the purchase price is required. You may use your savings, obtain another loan, receive financial assistance from your family or friends, or receive first-time homebuyer assistance from a source other than HEART.
- Continuous employment for 24 months prior to application must be demonstrated. Changing jobs and moving directly from one into another is OK. Not working for a period of time (90 days) “in between” jobs is not considered to be continuous employment unless there are specific and compelling reasons that can be confirmed by your employer.
- You must live or work in San Mateo County (except the City of Belmont) and the home you are purchasing must be in San Mateo County (except the City of Belmont).
- You must not have owned a home during the past 36 months in San Mateo County, CA, or you must be moving closer to transit in San Mateo County. A move-closer buyer is one who purchases a primary residence near transit in San Mateo County that is at least 50% closer to transit than the previous primary residence. “Near transit” means that the property is not more than a half mile from a BART or CalTrain station, or a major bus stop (serving an express route, or six routes, or an average of more than 48 buses per day).
- As an applicant for this loan program, you are ineligible for other HEART programs.
- What do I do if I have more questions?
- You can download a full set of Frequently Asked Questions here:
Opening Doors in Our Community FAQ - How do I apply?
- If you meet all of the above criteria, then you may qualify for this loan program. To review the criteria find out if this program is right for you,
check back soon to apply online!
click here:
- How is the program funded?
- HEART's donations from local employers fund the program. HEART continues to raise funds to enable this program to grow and serve even more local employees. Please click on the Donate Now button to make a gift, or contact our Fund Development staff at (650) 872-4444, ext. 4#. Thank you!
