Connecticut police officers, firefighters and emergency medical workers can get up to $25,000 toward a down payment and closing costs when the First Responders' Time to Own program launches Nov. 16, and the loan is forgiven over 10 years. Gov. Ned Lamont announced the First Responders' Time to Own program on Nov. 10. The Connecticut Housing Finance Authority runs it with the Department of Housing.
The money is a second loan that comes with a first mortgage from the authority. According to the authority's program page, the down-payment loan carries no interest and no monthly payment. One-tenth of the balance is forgiven each year on the anniversary of closing, so a $25,000 loan shrinks by $2,500 a year until it is gone on the tenth anniversary. The page says the loan can finance a down payment of up to 20 percent and closing costs of up to 5 percent, within the $25,000 maximum.
Who qualifies
Applicants must be certified or licensed law-enforcement, fire-service or emergency medical clinicians with at least two years on the job. The governor's announcement says career and volunteer firefighters are included. The main condition is location: the home must be in the community where the applicant serves and must be the primary residence.
The program loosens several rules of the authority's standard Time to Own loan:
It drops the three-year Connecticut residency requirement.
It has no minimum housing expense ratio. The authority's page calls this a minimum housing debt-to-income ratio.
It uses the authority's regular mortgage income limits instead of a cap of 100 percent of area median income.
It allows the full $25,000 regardless of the buyer's area-median-income calculation.
Borrowers also get a 0.125 percentage point cut in the interest rate on the first mortgage. That is an eighth of a point on a rate the authority describes as already below market.
Limits that still apply
Buyers must be first-time homebuyers or have not owned a home in the past three years, unless they buy in a federally designated targeted area. The sales price and the household's gross income must fall within the authority's published limits. Borrowers must take a free homebuyer education class before closing and submit a first responder certification form. The authority says it has nearly 70 participating lenders.
The program comes from Public Act 26-12, which the governor said also raises other first-responder job benefits, including college tuition reimbursement and health coverage. The announcement does not say how much money is set aside for the program or how many loans it can fund.
The authority is directing applicants to chfa.org/homebuyers-homeowners/homebuyers/first-responders for updates.
