michelle May 13, 2020
Are you a San Francisco police officer, firefighter, or sheriff’s office employee who dreams of owning a home in the city, but feels the up-front costs are out of reach? Fortunately the City and County of San Francisco offers three lottery-based down payment assistance programs for up to $375,000: the Downpayment Assistance Loan Program (DALP), Educators-DALP, and First Responders Downpayment Assistance Loan Program (FRDALP). For all three, you don’t have to make any payments on the loan for 30 years or until your property sells. In return, you pay back the principal amount plus a share of appreciation in the property’s value.
Mosaik Real Estate believes in the value of homeownership, and want to make it a reality for as many people as possible. We are proud to have helped 18 first-time buyers purchase the home of their dreams using these three programs.
In this blog post, we cover what you need to know about FRDALP. If you are interested in applying for FRDALP, here are the main steps:
In order to be eligible any homebuyer assistance program, the city requires you meet certain criteria (listed here). You must be:
Income eligibility is program-specific. For FRDALP, your household income cannot exceed 200% of the Area Media Income (AMI) for your family size. This is a sliding scale (full chart for 2020 available here), but below is a snapshot based on some typical family sizes.
Household Size | 200% AMI in 2020 |
1 person | $179,300 |
2 people | $205,000 |
4 people | $256,200 |
In addition, you must contribute a minimum of 3% (1.5% of your own funds, and remainder from gifts or grants) toward the down payment.
The city administers FRDALP annually with a clear application deadline. Currently the application window for 2020 is closed, but we expect the 2021 window will open next spring and last for at least 45 days. To receive official updates about application opening and closing dates, sign up for this mailing list.
Once the application window is open, FRDALP will begin accepting applications. Given our experience working with 18 successful recipients of the city’s homebuyer assistance programs, we would be happy to help guide you through each step of the application process.
Assuming you apply before the application deadline, the city will give you a lottery number. As an FRDALP candidate, you would be in first lottery rank order, ahead of candidates for both DALP and Educators-DALP. If you are selected and approved, you can use the loan on a downpayment for any property on the open market. Successful recipients of FRDALP financing should be aware of three things:
FRDALP is an amazing program for would-be homeowners in San Francisco, but as you can see, there are many steps involved. If you are interested in learning more about the program from a team with a great track record, get in touch using the form below:
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