Housing Trust Silicon Valley Homebuyer Empowerment Loan Program

HELP assists first time homebuyers with incomes slightly higher than Empower Homebuyers SCC and other down payment assistance programs by allowing a middle-income first-time homebuyers to borrow up to 10% of a home’s purchase price – which means an additional 10% from a first-time homebuyer would reach a down payment of 20%.

No matter the amount borrowed, there are no monthly payments or interest with a HELP loan. Instead, when the loan matures, you decide to sell or you refinance your mortgage, you repay the original amount of your loan plus a share of the appreciation of your home.

You will share your appreciation in equal proportion to the amount you borrowed. This means if your loan was 10% of the purchase price, you will share 10% of the appreciation and the rest of the equity that builds up on your home over time is yours. For instance, if you buy a house for $600,000 and use HELP to borrow 10% ($60,000) for the down payment, and the home is later sold for $800,000, you would owe $80,000 – $60,000 plus $20,000 (10% of the $200,000 appreciation).