Homebuyer Education Resources for California Public Employees, Teachers & First Time Homebuyers
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Start your home ownership education journey here……..
Educating yourself about any subject will empower you to make even more informed decisions throughout your journey. Home ownership is an important decision and a huge financial responsibility that carries no light burden.
This site is created to provide you with tools, resources and research materials to help you to better understand all aspects of the home buying process. Searching for homes, understanding home loan financing, hiring a real estate agent and loan officer or finding down payment and closing cost assistance are just some of the topics we tackle here.
On every page you will find the above buttons as well as other convenient navigation tools to help you find the information you are looking for. The left hand side of the site will help you search by category or topic as well as give you an opportunity to request more information about qualifying for financing or finding your dream home.
On the right side of the site you can always register for one of our live, free on-line home buyer education classes, browse through our video library of past live home buyer classes or explore the links and resources from past classes with the education resources and workbooks button.
Thank you for visiting, make your self at home. Check back often or subscribe to real time updates to stay informed of all new updates and education resources. Don’t forget to visit our “Praise” page to see what past visitors have to say about their education.
Jump to one of these resources now!
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I am trying to get information on the “teachers extra credit down payment program”. Is there funding for this program? Is it avaliable again?
Also is there any way around having to pay “points” when using the 80/17 CalSTRS, for a credit score that is a 640? I was very disapointed when I learned that theren would be a 2.5% fee for a lower credit score.
Thank you for any information,
Lori
Hi Scott:
Please let me know what is CALSTRS position and or Boardview Mortgage regarding using Question about using $8,000 First Time Homebuyer Ctedit towards Closing Costs on 80/17 loan program.
I read that only FHA type loans are permitted to allow this. Any progress to utilize it via CALSTRS 80/17 program?
Thank you,
Lee
Hi Lee,
Great question – Even though FHA announced that they would like to allow the $8,000 credit to be used toward closing costs, nobody has stepped up to figure out the logistics. About 2 weeks after they announced it, they back-tracked a little and modified the “guidelines” so that the credit could not be used for the required 3.5% down payment on FHA loans but could be applied as additional down payment or closing costs.
Here’s the biggest challenge. There have been no lenders or charitable organization that have stepped up to offer these “unsecured” loans to first time home buyers. Personally, I think Nehemiah should look into implementing this program – the fees would be approximately the same and they are a recognized charitable organization.
CalSTRS is a conventional loan program through Fannie Mae and therefore would not be eligible based on the initial talk about the program.
Hope that helps!
Scott
Hi Lori,
The “Extra Credit Teacher Program” offered by the California Housing Agency (CalHFA – ECTP) was temporarily suspended in September 2007. It has remained in the list of available programs by CalHFA until recently. With the announcement of two new programs – Cal30 and CHDAP i noticed that the long list of temporarily suspended programs were completely removed from the available programs list. I have not heard of plans to reinstate it.
In regards to the risk based credit pricing for CalSTRS, yes, that is an unfortunate result of the tightening of the credit markets. The fee is not exclusive to CalSTRS but is assessed by Fannie Mae. You may look into FHA as an option as it does not carry the same pricing adjustment based on credit score.