New County Program for First-Time Homebuyers

Local residents struggling to come up with a down payment on their first house can benefit from a new Alameda County program, AC Boost.

“Affordable housing in the Bay Area is a consistent challenge, particularly for those in service professions like first responders, teachers and childcare providers, and healthcare workers,” said Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley, whose district includes Castro Valley.

Miley said a regrettable history of redlining and racially-based resource inequity in Alameda County urgently requires active mitigation and social reparation.

AC Boost is a $50 million program aimed at working people of modest means. It provides loans of up to $210,000 to households earning up to $125,600 for a family of four. Income cutoffs are lower or higher for smaller and larger families, respectively.

Families with somewhat higher incomes are covered for a $160,000 forgivable loan if their income is under $150,700 or less, for a family of four.

Loans don’t have to be repaid until the house is sold or until the 30 year term has ended.

“The AC Boost program is a step in the right direction to address these longstanding barriers to wealth accumulation, and also an opportunity to show appreciation and recognition of people in every socioeconomic level,” Miley said. TThe hope is it will support our core mission of sustaining diversity by empowering those whose access to home ownership has previously been out of reach.”

To qualify, a household must either live or work in the county now, or been displaced from the county in the last 10 years, but not have owned a home in the last three years.

Educators and First Responders get first preference among applications. If there are more “top-rated” applicants than loans available, a lottery will be used to pick loan recipients.

Single family residences in Alameda County are covered, including condos, town homes, lofts, and live/work units.

There are no monthly payments and no interest charged for 30 years as long as the buyer occupies the house. When the house is sold, the buyer would pay back the loan plus a proportional share of the rise in value of the home. If the loan was 20 percent of the purchase price, for example, the seller would pay back the amount of the loan plus 20 percent of any gain in value.

AC Boost is funded by Alameda County Measure A1, which was passed by Alameda County voters in 2016 with the aim of increasing affordable housing county-wide. It is run in cooperation with the housing nonprofit Hello Housing.

More information about the program can be found on the AC boost website, https://www.acboost.org/, by email at acboost@hellohousing.org,  or by calling 510-500-8840.