Alameda County’s down-payment assistance program for new homebuyers is accepting applications for the final time.
AC Boost offers loans of up to $210,000 to people who live or work in the county, or who were displaced from their homes here. To be eligible, nobody in the household can have owned a house in the last three years. Applicants must make less than 120% of the area median income, which is $124,250 for an individual or $177,500 for a family of four.
The program is “intended to bring homeownership within reach of households who would otherwise not be able to afford to purchase a home in Alameda County,” the county says on the application site. In Berkeley, the average home price was $1.4 million in February, down 1.2% over the previous year, according to Zillow, thanks to interest rate hikes.
AC Boost is accepting pre-applications online until May 15. Applicants will be selected through a lottery and required to attend a homebuyer education course. Once they enter into a contract on a home, the funds will be reserved and they’ll submit a complete application for final approval.
First responders and educators are prioritized in the lottery, meant to enable them to live closer to their jobs and strengthen the local workforce.
The loan term for AC Boost is 30 years unless the borrower sells or moves out of the house sooner. There are no monthly payments during the loan term, but at the end, you’ll owe the full amount and an increase based on how much your property value rose.
It’s the final round of loans for the program, which has so far distributed close to $40 million in funds and resulted in 233 home purchases, according to a press release. Previous data shared by AC Boost showed that 60% of applicants were selected for funding in earlier rounds, and about 44% of those households successfully bought a home.
The program intends to remove barriers to homeownership access and wealth-building for groups historically shut out of the housing market.
“Many decades of government policies promoting racial discrimination, coupled with discriminatory real estate and lending practices, have contributed to the persistence of profound racial disparities in homeownership,” the press release said.
According to data previously provided by AC Boost, Asian households made up the largest percentage of loan recipients who were able to buy a home in previous rounds, followed by Black households.
AC Boost has a guide online for confirming eligibility. The program is funded by Measure A1, the $580 million bond approved by voters in 2016. The nonprofit Hello Housing manages the loan program.
