1st house

[dsaucone]

We're thinking about buying a house next year. I know it's really early, but we have a little bit of debt and would like to be out of that before, and we'd like to have a little money saved up for downpayment, or closing costs.

I've heard that there are some programs for first time home owners, does anybody know where I could find some more information on these?

[zersha]

I know it will vary by state, but we have a housing finance agency website that lists all the programs available. I think I found it by just doing a google search about First time homebuyers programs plus the name of our state.

I also called one of the approved lenders listed on the site and just asked them what types of things we should be doing if we planned on buying a home in 1-2 yrs, and they were very helpful.

We have programs with interest rates at about 5.85%, plus you can either get a no interest loan for the 3% down payment, or a grant for the 3% down payment that you don't even need to pay back. The income guidelines were pretty generous.

We are going to save up some for the downpayment & closing costs, but we can still get the grant as a bonus.

I just did a quick search for you, and the name of your state agency is The New York State Housing Finance Agency. Haven't found their website yet though.

edited to add a link:
http://www.nyhomes.org/home/index.asp?page=48