California first-time home buyer programs and below-market homes

A California first time home buyer program helps in one of two ways. If the down payment, the cash you pay up front, is what stops you, CalHFA, the state housing finance agency, offers loans that cover part of it. If regular prices are out of reach, a city's below-market home has a lower price, but you can't sell it at full price later.

What counts as a first-time buyer in California?

CalHFA's borrower rules say you're a first-time buyer if you haven't owned and lived in a home in the last three years. You also must not have lived in a home your spouse owned in that time.

California Dream For All has a stricter rule, because it is for first-generation buyers. At least one buyer must not have owned a home in the last seven years. That buyer's parents must also not own a home, unless the buyer was ever in foster care.

What do CalHFA programs offer?

CalHFA doesn't lend to you directly. You apply through a lender on CalHFA's loan officer list, and that lender checks your credit and income. You must live in the home, and your household's income must be at or under the county income limit, the most a household can earn and still qualify. CalHFA offers these main programs:

• CalHFA first mortgages. The main loan you use to buy the home, a 30-year mortgage whose interest rate never changes. It can be an FHA loan, insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). It can be guaranteed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) or the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Or it can be a conventional loan, which has no government backing. You repay it month by month.
• MyHome Assistance. A loan for your down payment and closing costs, the fees you pay when you buy. With an FHA loan it covers up to 3.5 percent of the price or the appraised value (what an appraiser says the home is worth), whichever is lower. With a conventional loan it covers up to 3 percent. You make no monthly payments on it. You repay it when you sell the home, pay off the mortgage or refinance, which means replacing your mortgage with a new one.
• CalPLUS. A first mortgage with a slightly higher interest rate, paired with CalHFA's Zero Interest Program, a loan for your closing costs.
• Dream For All. Up to 20 percent of the price for your down payment or closing costs, at most $150,000. When you sell the home or pay off the mortgage, you repay that amount plus a share of how much the home's value went up.

Of these, MyHome and Dream For All require you to be a first-time buyer.

An FHA loan needs at least 3.5 percent of the home's appraised value from you, and down payment help from a state program, such as MyHome, can supply it. A USDA guaranteed loan can cover the home's full price, so you can buy with no down payment, and CalHFA lets you combine it with MyHome.

Dream For All isn't first come, first served. Buyers register during a set window, and CalHFA picks who can use it by random drawing. Registration for the latest round closed on March 16, 2026, so you can't apply until CalHFA opens another one. To see whether a new round is open, check the Dream For All page. You will need a Dream For All pre-approval letter from a CalHFA-approved lender to register.

What are the CalHFA income limits for 2026?

CalHFA sets one income limit for each county, in effect since June 30, 2026. There is one chart for regular loans and MyHome and one for Dream For All. Here are nine counties:

Use the county where you're buying, not the one where you live now. Each county has one limit for the whole household, whatever its size, and many counties sit at the lowest figure, $192,000. Before you apply, ask a CalHFA-approved loan officer: "Whose income in my household counts toward the limit?"

What do city and county programs add?

Cities and counties add two things: their own down payment loans, and homes sold below market price. San Francisco's Mayor's Office of Housing and Community Development runs below market rate ownership programs, with its own income limits. Dublin sells below-market homes through its Housing Division and publishes a buyer's guide. These aren't CalHFA programs.

What is a below-market-price home, and what is a resale limit?

A below-market-price home, often called a below market rate (BMR) home, is sold for less than similar homes nearby to a household under an income limit. In return, the price stays low for the next buyer too. San Francisco resells its BMR homes at below-market prices to other buyers who qualify, and owners must work with the city to sell. Dublin records a resale restriction agreement on each home, a legal document that limits what you can sell it for.

CalHFA works the other way. Its first mortgage helps you buy a home at its regular price, and you repay it month by month. Its down payment loans are repaid later: MyHome when you sell, refinance or pay off the mortgage, and Dream For All when you sell or pay off the mortgage. A BMR home costs less to buy, but you can't sell it at full market price.

Each BMR home is set at a percent of the area median income, the middle income in the area. The San Francisco and Dublin limits below are for two people.

Do you need a homebuyer education class?

Almost always. CalHFA requires a class for first-time buyers, and one first-time borrower on each loan who will live in the home must finish it. Dream For All adds a free online one-hour course on shared appreciation, the share of the home's gain in value that you repay. San Francisco requires everyone on the loan and on the title, the legal record of who owns the home, to take a class. Dublin requires every owner on the title to take its 8-hour workshop.

CalHFA won't accept every online class. Its one accepted online course, listed on CalHFA's borrower rules, is eHome's 8-hour course ($100), because it includes a one-hour, one-on-one counseling session. CalHFA also accepts live classes from NeighborWorks America or a counseling agency approved by HUD, the federal housing department, which you can find with HUD's housing counselor search. If you also plan to use a city's down payment loan or buy a BMR home, ask that office whether it accepts the same class before you pay for one.

A worked example: two adults earning $150,000

Take two adults who earn $150,000 a year together. Each program counts income its own way. In San Francisco, for example, if your down payment is under 20 percent of the price, the city adds 10 percent of your savings above $80,000 to your income.

The same household fits CalHFA's limit. In San Francisco it is over the limit for a home set at 100 percent and under the limit for a home set at 120 percent. So read the percent on a BMR listing before you apply.

How do you start?

1. Check the three-year rule. If you've owned a home in the past three years, you can't use MyHome or Dream For All unless an exception applies. Ask a CalHFA-approved loan officer: "Does an exception to the three-year rule fit my situation?"
2. Take the class early. Some certificates expire: Dublin, for example, wants one dated within a year of applying.
3. Talk to a CalHFA-approved lender. CalHFA works only through these lenders, which you can find on CalHFA's loan officer list. Dream For All also needs a pre-approval letter, a letter from a lender saying how much it will lend you.
4. Compare your income with each limit. The qualify check compares your household with each open listing's limit. Our guide to FHA loan requirements explains the FHA loan that MyHome can pair with.
5. Look at homes for sale. Our San Francisco page, Bay Area page and open listings show below-market homes you can apply for. Some are sold by lottery, a random drawing, and others to the first buyers who qualify. Read how housing lotteries work before you enter one.