Applications for the California Dream For All loan assistance program, which aims to increase home ownership across the state, will close March 16.
According to the city, Dream For All is a part of a toolbox of different resources that have been used to increase home ownership in Berkeley over the past few years.
Since its registration opening Feb. 24, Dream For All has allowed first-time and first-generation homebuyers the opportunity to apply for a down-payment loan up to $150,000 or 20% of the home’s price.
“We want to encourage and foster those who came to Berkeley, came to love Berkeley, to stay in Berkeley and raise a family in Berkeley,” said Berkeley city spokesperson Sueng Lee.
As a shared appreciation loan, borrowers do not have to pay until after the house is sold, transferred, or the first mortgage is paid off. However, the repayment can increase if the home’s value has appreciated over time.
If a borrower meets certain qualifications, such as county-based income limits, they are then entered into a lottery system. According to the California Housing Finance Agency, 2024 report of the program, out of 18,000 applicants in 2024, only about 1,700 were awarded their loan.
“These loans have pretty stringent credit score requirements, so these are borrowers who you know have really good credit,” said campus economics PhD candidate Dustin Swonder, who is currently researching Dream for All., “[These buyers] are not high-income, but they have enough income to make mortgage payments, but they are just kept out of (making) the down payment.”
Muhammad Alameldin, a sSenior pPolicy aAdvisor for California YIMBY, worked on the development of Dream For All when he was a fellow at the Greenlining Institute in 2021. He said in comparison to the other loan programs that the Housing Finance Agency has ran, this is some of the largest financial assistance they’ve offered.
According to Alameldin, Dream For All’s goal was to help equalize the wealth disparity by providing loans to minority and impoverished communities who have historically been prevented from home ownership. He said the majority of these loans benefit Black, Brown, Asian and poor white buyers.
“(Dream For All) is a start,” Alameldin said. “The way we actually fix generational harm is by opening up areas that didn’t allow for multi-family housing or people of color to live there, which was 80% of the urban land in California … Future-facing, we should open up opportunities systemically.”
According to Lee, the city has taken several steps to increase housing affordability, construction and supply, in addition to helping implement Dream For All.
An example of this, according to Lee, are the “Middle Housing” zoning changes, implemented on Nov. 1, 2025.
Lee said these changes encourage the construction of new housing units across Berkeley that were restricted by previous zoning laws. This new application can be approved in as quickly as 30 days, as opposed to the previous six to 15 months, and fees are now up to 75% less expensive.