The short version
CalHFA — the California Housing Finance Agency — doesn't lend you money directly. It backs a first mortgage through an approved lender and pairs it with a junior loan covering your down payment, your closing costs, or both. You still get an FHA or conventional first. The assistance rides behind it as a second lien.
The workhorse is MyHome, a deferred second covering a percentage of the purchase price toward your down payment. Deferred means no monthly payment. It does not mean forgiven — it accrues simple interest and comes due when you sell, refinance, or pay off the first. It is not a grant. I say that twice to every client, because half of them heard otherwise from somebody at a barbecue.
And the trade-off nobody leads with: CalHFA first mortgages generally price above what you'd get on a straight FHA or conventional loan. That's how the assistance gets funded. Sometimes it's a fine deal. Sometimes it costs more over five years than the help was worth.
What does CalHFA actually offer right now?
Funding cycles open and close, so treat this as the shape of it rather than a locked menu. Confirm what's currently funded before you build a plan around any of it.
There's a conventional track and an FHA track for the first mortgage, plus a CalPLUS version of each carrying a slightly higher rate in exchange for pairing with ZIP — the Zero Interest Program — which covers closing costs. Stack MyHome on top and you have a structure where a buyer walks in with very little of their own cash.
Then there's Dream For All, the shared-appreciation program that made headlines. It has run as a limited-voucher lottery rather than a first-come line, funding has evaporated within days of opening, and recent rounds narrowed eligibility considerably. Valuable if you land it. Not something to plan a purchase around — I've watched buyers sit out an entire spring waiting for a round that never opened for them.
- MyHome — deferred second toward the down payment, a percentage of the lesser of purchase price or appraised value.
- ZIP / CalPLUS — deferred, zero-interest second for closing costs, paired with a higher first-mortgage rate.
- Dream For All — shared appreciation second, historically up to 20% of purchase price with a hard dollar cap, repaid with a share of your gain.
- All of it runs through a CalHFA-approved lender. You can't go straight to the agency.
Do I even qualify in Sonoma County?
Four gates, and people usually assume they fail the wrong one.
First-time buyer status generally means you haven't owned and occupied a home in the last three years. Owned a place in 2019 and rented since? You may be back in. Clients count themselves out on this and are wrong.
Income limits surprise people in the other direction — the Sonoma County figures run well into the six figures for a household, higher than most buyers guess. They're revised periodically and vary by program, so pull the current number. Watch this one: CalHFA looks at total household income, which can include people who aren't on the loan.
Credit and debt: expect a minimum score somewhere around 660 to 680 depending on program and loan type, with tighter debt-to-income ceilings than a plain FHA loan carries. Finally, you'll complete a homebuyer education course, and the home has to be your primary residence. Do the course early — it's a few hours, and leaving it to the end reliably delays closings.
What's the catch with down payment assistance?
Three of them, all manageable if you see them coming.
The rate. On a $650,000 loan, even a quarter point of extra rate is real money every month for as long as you keep the loan. Run the payment both ways and look at the five-year cost, not just the cash you need at the table. Sometimes the assisted version still wins by a mile because you couldn't close at all otherwise. That's a legitimate reason to take it. Take it with your eyes open.
The second lien. Deferred isn't forgiven. It also complicates a future refinance, because the junior lender has to agree to stay behind your new first mortgage. Subordination is routine, but it's paperwork and a timeline, and it catches people who forgot the second was there.
Shared appreciation, if you go the Dream For All route. You're handing over a slice of your future gain on top of repaying principal. In a county where values have moved the way ours have, that slice can end up much larger than the assistance you got. It's not a scam — it's the deal, stated plainly up front. Just model it at a few different appreciation rates before you decide you love it.
One practical note: some listing agents flinch at DPA offers because they've had one fall apart. In a multiple-offer situation on a Santa Rosa listing, that perception costs you. A pre-approval from someone who actually closes these does a lot of work there.
What other down payment help exists around the North Bay?
CalHFA gets the attention. It isn't the only door, and for plenty of buyers it isn't the best one.
GSFA Platinum is the one I bring up most. Golden State Finance Authority money toward down payment and closing costs, with looser eligibility in the ways that matter — typically no first-time buyer requirement and higher income limits. If you owned a home five years ago, or you earn too much for CalHFA, look here next. The Chenoa Fund is an FHA-focused option providing the 3.5% down as a second, structured either as repayable or forgivable if you pay on time for a set period.
Local money is worth a phone call too. Sonoma County and its cities have run first-time buyer and workforce housing assistance through the county's community development arm and through city housing departments in Santa Rosa and Petaluma. Small, funded in cycles, often unadvertised — which means much less competition when they're open. Several large North Bay employers, hospital systems and school districts especially, have had homebuyer benefits on the books as well.
And don't overlook the simplest option. Documented gift funds from family carry no second lien, no rate premium, no shared appreciation. If that's available to you, it beats every program on this page.
So is assistance actually right for you?
Here's how I sort it in a first conversation.
Have the down payment but short on closing costs? Don't reach for a full DPA structure. Ask for a seller credit, or price a small lender credit against a slightly higher rate. Cheaper and simpler.
Steady income but genuinely no savings — which describes a lot of people paying $3,200 a month in rent in this county? That's exactly what these programs were built for. The rate premium is the cost of not waiting four more years. Take it and refinance later once you have equity.
Close on cash but thin credit? Fix the credit first. A 40-point improvement can be worth more than the assistance, and that's often a 60-to-90-day project, not a two-year one. And if you have VA eligibility, start there and probably end there — zero down, no monthly mortgage insurance, no second lien. Nothing on this page beats it.
Get pre-approved on a standard loan before you look at any program. Without that baseline you can't tell whether the assistance is helping you or just moving the cost somewhere you can't see it. I'd rather tell you a program is wrong for your file than put you in a structure you'll spend three years unwinding.