ALTERNATIVES TO THE TAX CREDIT: How to Get Up to $7500 For Buying a Home in One of These Georgia Counties

The Georgia Department of Community Affairs (DCA) has yet another new down payment assistance option to its Georgia Dream Homeownership Program to help revitalize and attract home buyers to the several counties affected by the 2009 Georgia floods.  The Georgia Dream Recovery Program offers down payment and closing cost assistance for all home buyers in the following Metro Atlanta counties: Carroll, Cherokee, Cobb, Dawson, Dekalb, Douglas, Fulton, Gwinnett, Heard, Newton, Paulding and Rockdale. For those desiring to purchase a home in these counties, the real estate qualifications to receiving the Recovery Program funds are that it maybe any home within one of these counties (it does not have to have been personally affected/damaged by the floods) with a purchase price of no more than $300,000.  The DCA’s recovery program is also available to counties in other parts of Georgia including: Catoosa, Chattooga, Crawford, Dooly, Houston, Peach, Stephens, Taylor and Walker.  For those desiring to purchase a home in these counties, the real estate qualifications to receiving the Recovery Program funds are that it maybe any home within one of these counties (it does not have to have been personally affected/damaged by the floods) with a purchase price of no more than $250,000.

This assistance comes in the form of a second mortgage loan, with a zero percent interest rate and requires no repayment until the home is sold, refinanced, or no longer used as the principal residence of the borrower.

The Georgia Dream Recovery Program provides $5,000 when the purchase price is $150,000 or less or $7,500 when the purchase price is $150,000 or more up to the county’s specific limit for down payment and closing costs to borrowers whose total annual household income does not exceed the following:

In the Atlanta MSA:
   One to two person household- $86,000
   Three or more person household- $100,000

In all counties outside the Atlanta MSA:
    One to two person household- $73,000
    Three or more person household- $85,000

The Georgia Dream Recovery Program is available to eligible borrowers through Georgia Dream participating lenders and must be used in conjunction with a Georgia Dream first mortgage loan.

There is limited funding for Georgia Dream’s Recovery Program, therefore, all interested borrowers are encouraged to check with a Georgia Dream participating lender soon.   For further details contact 404.444.5777 or places2love@gmail.com.

Happy House Hunting!