ORLANDO, Fla. — It’s a popular lending program designed to help first-time home buyers get into a house in Florida. Since 2022, the Hometown Heroes Program has made $350 million available to help families buy homes, and each year the money went very quickly.

However, program leaders say this year there’s money just sitting on the table unused.

What You Need To Know

Half of the Hometown Heroes Program’s $50 million for 2025 is still available

The program offers 0% second mortgage to help pay down payments and closing costs

The loan is repaid when the house is sold, refinanced, or converted to a rental property

A housing market with high home prices, still high interest rates and climbing home insurance rates has many buyers still sitting on the sidelines.

Lenders say it seems many potential homeowners have forgotten about a program specifically designed to help them overcome the financial hurdles of buying a house.

Norman Carroll is a hometown hero. This disabled army veteran is under contract to buy a three-bedroom, one-bathroom house in Polk County. Carroll is using the Hometown Heroes lending program to get help with down payment assistance and closing costs.

“I was able to secure almost $9,000 from Hometown Heroes, and they definitely helped me out,” Carroll said.

The Florida Hometown Heroes Program gave out $100 million in 2022; $136 million in 2023; and $100 million in 2024.

This year, the funds became available in mid-August, but half of the $50 million allocated by the state is still available.  

Ted Bogert is a loan officer at Fluent Mortgage.

“$26 million of it is still available. Can you believe that?” Bogert said. “And it’s interesting because you would think in this market it would be such a big deal. We thought it would be gone in a week, and here we are almost three months later, where it’s still here.”

The program offers a 0% interest second mortgage to help pay down payments and closing costs. A buyer can get up to 5% of the first mortgage loan amount. That’s up to $35,000, depending on buyer income.

During 2024, the Hometown Heroes Program was available to any income-qualified first-time homebuyer whose employer was based in Florida. This year the state tightened up who can qualify to include workers in health care, schools, first responders, public safety, the military and veterans.

“So, if you’re a first-time buyer and you don’t fall into that, you can’t have access to the money,” Bogert said. “That may have slowed it down a little bit.”

The heroes’ 0% interest loan has to be repaid when buyers sell the house, refinance the first mortgage or if the house is converted into a rental property.

“It’s money, you’re not even making a payment on it,” Bogert said. “It’s free money for lack of a better word, and I can’t believe people aren’t utilizing it.”

Bogert added that with two recent interest rate cuts, he believes more buyers will get back into the market, and hopefully qualified buyers will put the cash to good use. He thinks now is a good time to check with a lender to see how much buying power you have.

Buyers can get more information about the Hometown Heroes Program by checking with the Florida Housing Finance Corporation, operated by the state of Florida.