Florida Hometown Heroes is down payment and closing cost help from Florida Housing Finance Corporation, the state's housing finance agency. It goes to the people Florida runs on: nurses, school staff, firefighters, deputies, court employees and child care workers, along with servicemembers and veterans. The money comes as a second mortgage, a smaller loan recorded behind your main one, and it costs you nothing per month.
Who Hometown Heroes serves
Florida Housing describes the program as serving first-time, income-qualified homebuyers buying a home they'll live in. For its homebuyer programs, first-time means you haven't owned and lived in a primary residence in the last three years, so a buyer who sold a home a while back can still count. Workforce buyers have to work full time for a Florida-based employer in an eligible field. Florida Housing names these groups:
- Health care workers
- School staff
- First responders
- Public safety and court employees
- Child care workers
- Active servicemembers, military reservists, Coast Guard members and reservists, and Florida National Guard members
- Veterans employed full time by a Florida-based employer
Florida Housing publishes an eligible occupations list along with household income limits and loan limits, and it revises them. We check your job title, your household income and the home's price against the current list before you write an offer. Florida Housing also requires an approved homebuyer education course, and the loan has to come through one of its participating lenders.
How the assistance works
Hometown Heroes is a 0%, non-amortizing, deferred second mortgage on a 30-year term. Non-amortizing means you make no payments on it. At 0% the balance never grows, so you owe exactly what you received. Florida Housing sizes it at up to 5% of the first mortgage amount, and it can go toward the down payment, the closing costs or both. Nothing is due until one of these happens:
- You sell the home
- You refinance the first mortgage
- You transfer the deed
- You stop living in the home as your primary residence
Florida Housing says the Hometown Heroes loan is not forgivable, so plan on repaying it from your sale or refinance proceeds. Since it has no monthly payment, it adds nothing to your debt-to-income ratio (your house payment plus monthly debts, divided by gross monthly income).
The first mortgage can be FHA, VA, USDA or Conventional. On FHA, HUD lets a governmental entity such as a state housing finance agency provide the buyer's 3.5% minimum required investment, which is how this second can cover the whole FHA down payment. Florida Housing's page also mentions reduced upfront fees and no origination or discount points on the first mortgage.
A worked example
Dana works full time as a nurse for a Florida-based hospital system, earns $5,200 a month gross, and is buying a $300,000 single-family home with FHA. The 3.5% down payment is $10,500.
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Purchase price | $300,000.00 |
| FHA down payment (3.5%) | $10,500.00 |
| Base FHA loan (96.5%) | $289,500.00 |
| Upfront mortgage insurance (1.75%, financed) | $5,066.25 |
| FHA first mortgage | $294,566.25 |
| Monthly payment on the Hometown Heroes second | $0.00 |
At up to 5% of the $294,566.25 first mortgage, the second has room to cover Dana's full $10,500 down payment and put the remainder toward closing costs. Any closing costs it doesn't reach can come from a seller credit, which FHA allows up to 6% of the price, or a gift from family.
At a 5.75% rate on a 30-year fixed, principal and interest on $294,566.25 is $1,719.01. Add property tax at 0.95% of the price a year ($237.50 a month), $283.00 for homeowners insurance and $132.69 of annual FHA mortgage insurance, and the house payment is $2,372.20. Dana's housing ratio is $2,372.20 divided by $5,200, or 45.6%, inside FHA's 46.9% limit with an automated approval. The second adds $0 to that.
If Dana sells nine years later, the payoff on the second is the same amount Dana received at closing, because it never charges interest. It comes out of the sale proceeds at the closing table, the same way the first mortgage payoff does.
When Hometown Heroes funding is open
Florida Housing sets the program's funding, income limits and loan limits, and it changes them. Some periods the money is available and some periods it's paused. Checking the status before your contract is written lets the closing date and the assistance line up.
When Hometown Heroes is paused or your job isn't on the list, the down payment still has answers. Florida Housing runs other assistance seconds for buyers in any line of work. FHA 100% financing pairs a 96.5% FHA first with an assistance second that covers the 3.5%. The seller can pay up to 6% of the price toward closing costs on FHA, and family can gift the rest. The FHA 100% financing guide shows how those pieces combine.
Call AAA Capital Funding at 888-601-8344 and we'll check whether Hometown Heroes money is open, confirm your occupation and income against Florida Housing's limits, and line it up against every other assistance option you qualify for. To see your cash to close first, run your price through the cash to close calculator.