First Time Home Buyers

  1. Home
  2. City Hall
  3. Housing And Community Services OLD
  4. Community Development
  5. First Time Home Buyers

The City utilizes State Housing Initiatives Program (SHIP) and HOME Investment Partnership (HOME) funds to provide eligible, would-be first-time homeowners funds for down payment assistance to acquire their home in Miami Beach. Funds prioritize assistance to very low- and low-income households and applicants must spend a portion of their awarded allocation to make improvements on the home.

Income-eligible households may receive between $40,000 to $150,000 in down payment assistance, depending on their household income and as delineated in the City’s Local Housing Assistance Plan (LHAP) availability of funding. Funds are provided to eligible residents as a deferred forgivable loan that is secured by a lien and restrictive covenant on the property. If the homeowner continues to reside in the home for 15 years, the full amount is forgiven. If the homeowner sells, rents, or refinances his/her property or the property is no longer the primary residence prior to the 15-year affordability period, he/she must repay the City the value of the assistance plus applicable profit sharing as noted in the Promissory Note, Restrictive Covenant and Mortgage executed at the time of program award and property acquisition.

The HOME program will award a maximum of $40,000 in down payment assistance for households earning up to 80% AMI, contingent on funds availability.

The SHIP Program will award funds (contingent upon availability) based on income limits as follows:

                                                                SHIP Maximum award amounts:

  1. $50,000 (Moderate-Income)
  2. $100,000 (Low-and Very Low-Income)
  3. $150,000 (Extremely Low-Income)

For more information, contact the Office of Housing and Community Development at 305.673.7260 or by emailing us at Ship@miamibeachfl.gov.

Click here for a list of Miami-Dade County Approved Lenders.

All applications and supporting documentation must be submitted online via: https://portal.neighborlysoftware.com/MIAMIBEACHFL/Participant . Please use Chrome, Safari browsers, as the link does not work on Internet Explorer. You will need to register with Neighborly Software before submitting an application and the application should take up to 10 minutes to complete. Once you submit the application (via the link or in person), you will be contacted for an appointment to review the application and sign consent forms.

To apply, please complete our First Time Home Buyer application and 2022 Program Overview (English) Reseña del programa (Spanish). Please note there is a waitlist at this time. In order to apply to the waitlist, you may email your completed and signed application to ship@miamibeachfl.gov.

The income limits for 2022 are:

Percentage Category 1-Person 2-Person 3-

Person

 4 -Person 5 -Person 6-Person 7-Person 8-Person
Extremely Low- Income Limits (30%) $20,500 $23,400 $26,350 $29,250 $32,470 $37,190 $41,910 $46,630
Very Low-Income (50%) $34,150 $39,000 $43,900 $48,750 $52,650 $56,550 $60,450 $64,350
Low-Income (80%) $54,600 $62,400 $70,200 $78,000 $84,250 $90,500 $96,750 $103,000
Moderate Income- (120%) $81,960 $93,600 $105,360 $117,000 $126,360 $135,720 $145,080 $154,440

The Florida Hometown Heroes Housing Program makes homeownership affordable for eligible frontline community workers such as law enforcement officers, firefighters, educators, healthcare professionals, childcare employees, and active military or veterans. This program provides down payment and closing cost assistance to first-time, income-qualified homebuyers so they can purchase a primary residence in the community in which they work and serve.

For more information, please visit: Hometown Heroes (floridahousing.org)