Your first home starts with a clear plan.

Florida Housing uses the IRS definition: a first-time homebuyer is someone who has not owned and occupied a primary residence in the 3 years before the purchase. Someone who sold a home four years ago, or who owns a property they have never lived in, may count. Florida Housing also states that veterans do not have to be first-time homebuyers for its government loan program. Consult a mortgage lender who participates in Florida Housing’s programs to confirm how the definition applies to your history.

Florida Housing offers 30-year fixed-rate first mortgages through participating lenders across the state. Its published requirements are a minimum credit score of 640, an approved homebuyer education course, a participating lender, and a purchase price and household income below the limits for the county where you buy. The education course comes from a list your lender provides, and it is worth doing early: it is required before closing, and it covers the steps you will go through.

Florida Housing’s assistance is a second mortgage that comes only with its own first mortgage; it is never available on its own. The three options differ in how they are repaid, and the right one depends on the loan, which is a question for your lender. What matters on the real estate side is that every one of them requires the home to stay your primary residence, so the property has to be one you intend to live in.

• Florida Assist (FL Assist): up to $10,000, as a 0%, non-amortizing, deferred second mortgage on FHA, VA, USDA and conventional loans; not forgivable, and due in full on sale, transfer, refinance, payoff of the first mortgage, or when the home stops being the primary residence
• Florida Homeownership Loan Program (FL HLP): $12,500, as a 3%, fully amortizing, 30-year second mortgage with a monthly payment; the unpaid balance is due on sale, transfer, refinance, payoff of the first mortgage, or when the home stops being the primary residence
• HFA Preferred and HFA Advantage PLUS: 3%, 4% or 5% of the total loan amount, as a forgivable second mortgage, forgiven at 20% a year over a five-year term, available only with Florida Housing’s conventional HFA Preferred and HFA Advantage first mortgages

The State Housing Initiatives Partnership program sends state housing money to local governments, which run their own purchase assistance with their own rules, amounts and application windows. SHIP purchase price limits are set county by county; the 2025 limits Florida Housing publishes are $679,324 in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach, $619,629 in Martin and St. Lucie, and $544,233 in Indian River. Because local programs open and close, ask the housing office of the county or city where you plan to buy what it has available now.

Condominiums are where many South Florida first homes are, and they carry questions a house does not. Florida’s programs allow condominiums only in approved projects. Florida now requires milestone structural inspections for condominium buildings three habitable stories or taller, starting by the end of the year the building turns 30, or 25 where the local building department requires it near salt water, and requires structural integrity reserve studies; associations that must have one can no longer vote to skip reserve funding for the items it covers. Before an offer, ask for the association’s budget, its reserve study, its milestone inspection status and any special assessment already voted.

Within the program limits most South Florida buyers are weighing a condo against a townhome, a villa (an attached, usually single-story home with its own entrance) or an older single-family house farther from the coast. Each trades something. A condo’s monthly association fee covers the building’s insurance and upkeep; a house leaves the roof, the wind insurance and the flood insurance to you. Compare the full monthly cost of each, including association fees and insurance quotes, before deciding what kind of home to search for.

Consult a mortgage lender who participates in Florida Housing’s programs and get pre-approved. Then we set up a search inside your county’s limits and the property types your program allows, and we gather what decides a first purchase before you commit: the association documents, the flood zone, the age of the roof and the insurance picture. The offer is written with your lender’s timeline in mind, and we stay on it through inspection, appraisal and closing.