How can you benefit from a home grant? One of the biggest hurdles someone has to jump when trying to purchase a home is overcoming the down payment. This can be tough for almost every home buyer, but it’s particularly difficult for the family that falls into the low income category with the goal of buying their dream home. The government does offer a home grant in the form of a down payment assistance program that is presented through HUD. The department’s mission is to pursue initiatives that make owning a home available to as many Americans as possible. HUD makes guarantees on home loans and other initiatives, though a common misconception is that HUD actually issues mortgages to borrowers. They do not do such a thing, but they do offer initiatives pertaining to down payments.
In 2003, HUD created an initiative called The American Dream Down Payment Initiative, which is a type of home grant that helps the potential homebuyer with their down payment. This initiative is part of the American Dream Down Payment Assistance Act of 2003. These home grants offer over $200 million dollars in down payment assistance. They are only available to first time buyers and are also focused on revitalizing neighborhoods and providing minorities, as well as lower income families, with a step up.
With this home grant, HUD will give assistance with down payments and closing costs only. The home grants that they give to any individual or family is capped at $10,000, or six percent of the actual purchase price. This is an actual government home grant program that is truly determined to help people better their lives. The grant never has to be paid back and can be granted at any time.
Although HUD offers home grants, there are others out there that try to help through gift giving entities. At one time, HUD insured many of these “other” assistance programs but recently has put a moratorium on these types of home grants as they no longer support any of these types of assistance programs. The reason for this is because they believe that some people may be using these home grant programs to buy homes with mortgages that the buyers simply cannot afford. They feel that the most recent occurrence of foreclosures could be directly related to the fact that people have been issued mortgages that they normally would never have sought had they not been provided with the assistance from a housing grant program.
