Colorado runs down payment assistance that most first-time buyers never hear about. You can qualify with less saved and a lower score than the number in your head, and the first call costs you nothing.
CHFA and several metro-area housing authorities run programs that cover part or all of a down payment. Some arrive as grants you never repay. Others are second mortgages that sit quietly behind the first and come due when you sell or refinance. Each one carries its own income ceiling, purchase price cap and homebuyer education requirement.
The programs change every year, so ask what is open the month you are buying.
Most programs define a first-time buyer as someone who has not owned a home in the last three years. People who owned once, sold, and rented since then qualify again more often than they expect. A few programs waive the requirement entirely in targeted areas or for veterans.
If you owned a home years ago, ask anyway. The answer surprises people.
Twenty percent down is a rule from a different era. Conventional financing starts at three percent for a qualified buyer and FHA at three and a half, both with mortgage insurance attached until you build equity. A score in the low six hundreds still has programs behind it, and moving a score thirty points sometimes takes one billing cycle.
Call before you spend a year saving toward a number you may not need.
Closing costs run separate from the down payment, and they catch first-time buyers off guard more often than anything else on the file. A seller can contribute toward them, a lender credit can absorb some in exchange for a slightly higher rate, and assistance programs sometimes cover them outright.
We show you the full cash to close on the first quote, not at the closing table.
No application and no credit pull to begin. Tell Steev what you earn and what you have saved, and he will tell you what that buys in your county.