{"id":78917,"date":"2026-02-02T21:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T05:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=78917"},"modified":"2026-02-02T21:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T05:10:09","slug":"amid-californias-housing-crisis-good-news-for-first-generation-homebuyers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=78917","title":{"rendered":"Amid California\u2019s Housing Crisis, Good News for First-Generation Homebuyers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By<\/span>Selen Ozturk<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Even as housing costs soar amid California\u2019s affordability crisis, would-be first-generation homebuyers have a new way to reach the American dream.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Image via Canva.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Even as housing costs soar amid California\u2019s affordability crisis, would-be first-generation homebuyers have a new way to reach the American dream.<\/p>\n

The California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA) is rolling out the\u00a0Dream For All\u00a0<\/a>shared appreciation loan program for qualified Californians to help would-be buyers meet down payment and\/or closing costs on home mortgages.<\/p>\n

Who Qualifies and for How Much?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

From February 24 to March 16, the California Dream For All Shared Appreciation Loan Program will open for qualified Californians \u2014 including long-undeserved ethnic minority and immigrant communities \u2014 to meet down payment and\/or closing costs on new home mortgages, planting the seed for intergenerational wealth.<\/p>\n

Since 2021, when the annual Dream For All program started, approximately 4,000 Californians have been helped to buy their first home, with another 1,000 to 1,500 expected this year, explained CalHFA Information Officer Eric Johnson at a Thursday, January 29 American Community Media briefing.<\/p>\n

Under the program, first-generation homebuyers mean somebody who has not owned a home in the U.S. in the past seven years and whose parents do not currently own one, or if deceased, did not own one at the time of their death; the term also includes or someone who has been in foster care or out-of-home institutional care at any point.<\/p>\n

In the case of multiple borrowers on a loan, only one must be a first-generation homebuyer, but the rest must be a first-time homebuyer, defined as someone who has not owned and occupied their own home in the U.S. as a primary residence in the last three years.<\/p>\n

How the Shared Appreciation Loan Works<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cSo much of a family\u2019s wealth is locked up in their home, and you can pass that home on to the next generation, but so many families have been essentially frozen out of home ownership,\u201d said Johnson. \u201cIn California there are thousands and thousands of people who have a good credit score, a steady job and steady income, but they haven\u2019t been able to save up enough money for that down payment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dream for All program loans enrollees up to 20% of the value of the home for that down payment \u2014 for example, $100,000 of a $500,000 home, so that the buyer bases their monthly mortgage on a payment of $400,000 instead.<\/p>\n

As a shared appreciation loan, once the enrollee sells their home, they must pay back not only that percentage loaned, but that percentage of the home\u2019s appreciation \u2014 so $100,000 and 20% of the home\u2019s appreciation per this 20% example.<\/p>\n

This loan will save the average homebuyer about $1,200 per month, according to California Forward, a nonprofit that prepared a report for the State Treasurer\u2019s Office in 2022.<\/p>\n

Annual income limits per county can be found\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 $295,000 in San Francisco and $168,000 in Los Angeles as of 2025, for example.<\/p>\n

Community Voices on Making the Dream Real<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u2018The answer is always \u2018no\u2019 until you ask\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Los Angeles, the dream of home ownership is there \u2026 The question is: Why don\u2019t we own a home? Few have the big down payment for it,\u201d said Shonta Clark, senior loan consultant and CalHFA counselor at New American Funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the\u00a0African American<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0to the\u00a0Korean American<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0community here, most people who come to me simply don\u2019t have the down payment,\u201d she continued, encouraging would-be homebuyers to contact her. \u201cBut if anyone says that dream is not possible, that\u2019s not true. They\u2019re just not talking to the right people to find out how to make it come true.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest challenge that I see in the market is the down payment \u2026 but it\u2019s not just about getting them into home ownership, getting them the keys. We want to make sure that they keep those keys and that they don\u2019t lose their house to foreclosure \u2026 through programs like these,\u201d added Imelda Manzo, broker-owner of\u00a0Premier One Realtors<\/a>\u00a0in Riverside County, where Latinos represent roughly 53% of the population.<\/p>\n

Tiffany Duvernay Smith, a Dream for All beneficiary who was able to buy a house in south Los Angeles after years unhoused, said \u201cThe answer will never be yes if you don\u2019t actually apply. My husband and I fell in and out of eligibility during the process \u2026 from fluctuating credit scores to \u2018Oh, we make too much. Let\u2019s go look at other programs.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut this past September \u2026 after being diligent and being responsible and paying our bills and keeping our numbers up \u2026 we finally got approved,\u201d she continued. \u201cThe answer is always \u2018no\u2019 until you ask.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHolding on to hope, taking the steps, taking the classes, working on the credit score, believing, working on the deposit \u2014 just do it and you get a house,\u201d Smith added.<\/p>\n

How and When to Apply<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Dream For All application portal will be open\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0from February 24 to March 16. Selection is random and not rolling, so the date of application does not impact chances of submission.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BySelen Ozturk Feb 2, 2026 Even...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ca-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=78917"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78918,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78917\/revisions\/78918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=78917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=78917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=78917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}