California mortgage answers · First home

Buying a first home in California: the down payment, the assistance and the payment

The first-home questions people actually type are rarely about a loan program. They are about the down payment, whether the assistance programs they keep hearing about are real, and whether the payment on a specific house is one they can carry. Those three are connected: the assistance changes the down payment, the down payment changes the loan amount, and the loan amount changes the payment.

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What this topic is really about

California layers programs. CalHFA works statewide. Counties and cities run their own, with their own income limits, price caps and funding rounds that open and close during the year. Most of the value is in how the assistance stacks onto the first mortgage, which is why an article written last spring can be wrong by the time you read it. The answers below carry the source and the date on every figure so you can check them yourself.

The answers here come from real questions asked in public by first-time buyers in the markets we work. Each one is answered against how the financing actually works, with the local number, and each one names the part that changes on your own file.

By market

Every first home answer, by where the address is

Murrieta, CA 2

How do I buy a house as a first time buyer with the VA home loan? Pull your Certificate of Eligibility first, then get underwritten before you shop, not just pre-qualified, and buy with zero down.
We are in the process of buying a house now in the region. Mortgage payment is about $4600 including insurance and property tax. A first-time buyer’s reported payment on a forum describes their own file, their price and their program, not a rule for the next purchase.

Temecula, CA 1

Is a home in California possible? A first-time Temecula purchase is a math question, not a general question about California.

Menifee, CA 1

We did it!! So Cal for 419k and 6.4% : r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer Multiple down payment programs exist for first-time buyers in the Menifee area, including CalHFA, Riverside County assistance, and the City of Menifee’s own Homebuyer Assistance Program, reported up to $100K through NPHS.

the San Gabriel Valley 1

Programs for first time homebuyers buyers FHA's base 3.5% down payment, CalHFA MyHome's down payment assistance, and L.A.

the San Fernando Valley 2

Wanting to buy a home so badly but very discouraged, any advice? Discouragement usually comes from comparing your budget to the wrong number: a citywide LA median unrelated to the Valley’s entry-tier cities, or a search with no floor or ceiling.
California 150k first time home buyer program. Is this a good idea? A down payment assistance program is not free money, it’s a second loan, typically deferred or silent, sitting behind your mortgage and repaid later, often at sale or refinance.

On your file

What changes this answer on your file

Your income against the program limit for the county, not the state.
Whether the address sits inside the jurisdiction that runs the program.
The price cap of the program against the price of the house you actually want.
How much you have for the down payment and closing costs after the assistance, and what reserves are left.
The timing of the funding round, which can close before your escrow does.

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Who answers

Nick Nagy

23 years in California lending · NMLS 314880 · CA DRE 01444600 · Loan Factory, Inc.

Dual licensed, so the loan side and the real estate side of a move are looked at as one problem instead of two. Most of what goes wrong in a move is a timing problem wearing a financing costume, and it is cheaper to catch it before you write an offer than after.

Financing is placed through Loan Factory, Inc. Real estate work is under CA DRE 01444600. More about Nick.

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The desk behind the file

One file, 237 lenders competing for it, and a broker who has done this for 23 years.

Loan Factory, Inc. is the brokerage. These are its published figures.

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A retail bank has one guideline book. When your file does not fit it, the answer is no and the reason is rarely explained. A broker shops the same file across the shelf and finds the lender whose box it already fits.

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Straight answers

Questions people here actually ask

The three most asked, in one sentence each. The full answers are on their own pages above.

How do I buy a house as a first time buyer with the VA home loan?

Pull your Certificate of Eligibility first, then get underwritten before you shop, not just pre-qualified, and buy with zero down. The full answer, with the local number and its source, is on its own page: https://go.homeaccesslist.com/answers/murrieta/va-loan-first-time-buyer

Is a home in California possible?

A first-time Temecula purchase is a math question, not a general question about California. The full answer, with the local number and its source, is on its own page: https://go.homeaccesslist.com/answers/temecula/first-time-buyer-is-it-possible

We did it!! So Cal for 419k and 6.4% : r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer

Multiple down payment programs exist for first-time buyers in the Menifee area, including CalHFA, Riverside County assistance, and the City of Menifee’s own Homebuyer Assistance Program, reported up to $100K through NPHS. The full answer, with the local number and its source, is on its own page: https://go.homeaccesslist.com/answers/menifee/first-time-buyer-down-payment-menifee

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You tell us the situation. Which end of the market you are in and what you are trying to do. It takes about a minute, and there is no credit pull to start.
We shop the file. One file goes across 237 lenders at Loan Factory, against the programs that actually apply at your price point rather than the one book a single bank keeps.
You get a real number. Written down, with what it rests on, so you can check it yourself. You keep it either way, and when the honest answer is that waiting is the better move, that is the answer you get.