The Ohio Housing Finance Agency's (OHFA's) Office of Single Family Housing works with more than 150 lenders throughout the state to provide discounted mortgage rates, down payment programs, tax credits, and loan products to make buying a home more affordable for eligible homebuyers.
With generous income and purchase price limits designed especially for homebuyers with low- and moderate-incomes, OHFA also offers 30-year fixed rate Federal Housing Agency (FHA), Veterans Affairs (VA), U.S. Department of Agriculture – Rural Development (USDA-RD), and conventional mortgage loans.
The programs OHFA offers to potential homebuyers include: OHFA Down Payment Assistance, Grants for Grads, Ohio Heroes, Mortgage Tax Credit, and Next Home. Our most popular program is down payment assistance. It provides an eligible homebuyer either 3% or 3.5% of the home's purchase price, depending on the type of loan, to help with a down payment or closing costs. For a $200,000 home, OHFA's assistance would provide $6,000 toward a down payment. To find out more about our housing affordability programs, visit myohiohome.org.
Future homebuyers can also access a homebuyer guide and video that outline what to expect when using an OHFA program on myohiohome.org. The guide includes a budget tracking sheet and checklist that covers everything from loan pre-qualification to what documents are needed at closing. A glossary in the guide has all the definitions future homebuyers should know.
The Homebuyer Guide also outlines future home-related expenses to plan for as well as helps readers understand how much to borrow and what support to expect from a real estate professional. The guide provides additional resources from the Ohio Department of Commerce Division of Real Estate, Ohio Department of Insurance, credit score tracking websites, and more.
To ensure our partners, including mortgage lenders and real estate professionals, understand how OHFA's programs can help their customers when purchasing a home, OHFA provides in-person and virtual trainings that outline program eligibility and how OHFA’s programs can be paired with other homebuyer assistance resources. Mortgage lenders and real estate professionals can register for trainings by visiting ohiohome.org.
With its dedicated staff, the Office of Single Family Housing continues to break records toward its goal of increasing homeownership in Ohio. In fact, since 1983, OHFA has empowered more than 163,000 households throughout Ohio to achieve the dream of homeownership.
