First-time home buyer programs in Utah

The first-time home buyer programs in Utah that matter most run through Utah Housing Corporation, and you reach every one of them through a participating lender.

That last part is the practical point. You do not apply to Utah Housing directly. A lender on its approved list qualifies you, picks the loan, and requests any assistance. If your lender is not on that list, none of what follows is available to you, however eligible you are.

This post is about the programs themselves: what exists right now, the limits, and the catches. If you want the broader question of how much to put down and why I care more about your reserves than your down payment, that is in how much is a down payment in Utah.

The Utah Housing loans that are open right now

Utah Housing lists three first mortgage programs as active and three as temporarily suspended (Utah Housing Corporation, checked October 2026).

Program	Status	Minimum credit score	Who it is for
FirstHome	Open	660	First-time buyers under the income and price limits; typically Utah Housing’s lowest rate
FHA/VA Mortgage	Open	620	First-time buyers and previous owners; follows FHA loan limits
Freddie Mac HFA Advantage	Open	680	First-time buyers and previous owners; lower mortgage insurance cost
HomeAgain	Temporarily suspended	660	Previous owners
NoMI	Temporarily suspended	700	Loan without mortgage insurance
Score	Temporarily suspended	620	Buyers rebuilding credit

If you have read about the Score loan on an older guide, note the status. Utah Housing currently lists it under “temporarily suspended,” along with HomeAgain and NoMI.

FirstHome is the one most first-time buyers should ask about first. It usually carries the lowest rate Utah Housing offers, and it has both an income limit and a purchase price limit, set by county.

FirstHome income and price limits by county

These are Utah Housing’s posted FirstHome limits for a few of the counties this site covers (Utah Housing Corporation, checked October 2026). Income is total annual household income.

County	Income limit, household of 1–2	Income limit, household of 3+	Maximum purchase price
Salt Lake	$126,100	$145,000	$666,600
Utah	$143,000	$165,200	$769,100
Davis	$141,400	$164,600	$778,500
Tooele	$121,300	$139,400	$666,600
Washington	$118,000	$135,700	$635,300

The FHA/VA Mortgage and Freddie Mac HFA Advantage programs use a single income limit of $165,200 in every county and have no separate purchase price cap beyond the federal loan limits that apply to them (Utah Housing Corporation, checked October 2026).

Two things trip people up here. The price limit is per county, so the same buyer can qualify in one county and not the next. And FirstHome counts the income of household members who will sign the deed of trust, so a working adult child or a parent moving in can change the answer.

The down payment second mortgage

Utah Housing pairs any of its first mortgages with a second loan for the down payment and closing costs. It comes in two versions (Utah Housing Corporation, checked October 2026):

	Traditional	Deferred
Maximum amount	6 percent of the first mortgage, up to $27,500	3.5 percent of the first mortgage, up to $27,500
Term	30-year fixed	30-year fixed
Rate	1 percent above the first mortgage rate, capped at 8 percent	3.5 percent simple interest, deferred
Monthly payment	Yes	None
When it is repaid	Monthly over the term	At maturity, sale or refinance

This is a loan, not a grant, and it is worth being clear-eyed about that. The traditional version adds a second monthly payment. The deferred version adds no payment now but accrues interest and comes due in full when you sell or refinance, which reduces the equity you walk away with.

That is not a reason to avoid it. For a buyer with strong income and thin savings, it can be the difference between buying this year and renting for three more. It is a reason to have your lender show you the payment and the payoff side by side before you choose.

The $20,000 program for new construction

The state’s First-time Homebuyer Assistance Program was created by Senate Bill 240 in 2023 and is administered by Utah Housing. It is often misremembered as a general first-time buyer grant. It is narrower than that (Utah Housing Corporation program FAQ, updated July 2026, checked October 2026):

Up to $20,000 for down payment, closing costs, or a permanent rate buydown
The home must be newly constructed and never lived in
The purchase price cannot exceed $450,000
You must have lived in Utah for at least the 12 months before closing
You must not have owned a principal residence in the previous three years, with an exception for some single parents
You must qualify for a Utah Housing first mortgage, and occupy the home within 60 days

The money is a 0 percent loan with no monthly payment. If you sell or refinance, you repay the lesser of the assistance you received or half of your equity. If you keep the home and the loan for the full 30-year term, nothing is repaid. It can be stacked with the down payment second mortgage above, but not with Utah Housing’s veteran or law enforcement grants.

Funding is the part to watch. The Legislature has appropriated $80 million since the program began, expected to help roughly 3,900 buyers, and funds are first-come until they run out. When I checked in October 2026, Utah Housing’s homepage counter showed 329 remaining for this program.

The price cap is the real limit in the Salt Lake Valley. A new home at or under $450,000 usually means a townhome or condo rather than a detached house, and builders who sell in that range often steer buyers to a preferred lender. If you go that route, the builder’s lender question is worth reading first, and the lender still has to be on Utah Housing’s list.

Other help that is currently open

Utah Homebuyer Veteran Grant. Up to $2,500 that does not have to be repaid, for service members and veterans who separated within the last five years and are first-time Utah buyers. The Utah Housing counter showed 168 remaining in October 2026. The companion law enforcement grant showed none remaining (Utah Housing Corporation, checked October 2026).

Salt Lake Board of Realtors American Dream Grant. A $10,000 grant toward down payment or closing costs, with no repayment and no lien. Recipients are chosen by random drawing, and the next listed drawing is November 18 for three grants. The buyer’s agent must be a board member, the buyer cannot have owned a home in the last three years, credit must be above 620, household income cannot exceed $141,400, and the purchase must close within 90 days of the award (Salt Lake Board of Realtors, page updated September 2026, checked October 2026).

South Jordan’s down payment program. For homes inside South Jordan city limits only: the lesser of 7.5 percent of the price or $20,000, for households at or below 80 percent of area median income with a mid credit score of at least 650. You must stay for ten years. Selling early means a prorated repayment, renting the home at any point means repaying it all, and either one in the first two years adds a $5,000 penalty (South Jordan City Redevelopment Agency, checked October 2026).

Community Development Corporation of Utah. A nonprofit offering deferred-loan down payment assistance to first-time buyers who can put in at least $1,000 of their own money. Funding varies by area and year and is awarded first-come, first-qualified, so you call an intake specialist to find out what is open (CDCU, checked October 2026).

What I could not confirm

Salt Lake City’s Housing Stability Division lists a home buyer program for low and moderate income households within city limits, but I could not find a current application or confirm it is taking new buyers. West Jordan has run its own assistance in the past, and the city’s housing page no longer describes one. Ask both cities directly before you count on either.

How to actually use this

Ask your lender three questions in the first conversation, not after you have an accepted offer. Are you a Utah Housing participating lender? Do I fit FirstHome in this county? Should I be looking at new construction under $450,000?

What I see most often is buyers learning about the new-construction program after they have already signed on a resale home, when it can no longer help them. The second most common problem is a lender who simply does not offer Utah Housing loans and never mentions that they exist.

I am Kelsey Earl, a Realtor with Keller Williams South Valley, and the programs are the easy part. Choosing where you can actually buy within those limits is the harder one, which is what where first-time buyers actually buy in the south Salt Lake Valley is for. If you want to see what your budget looks like with assistance included, start with the buying power report.

Note: Program terms, limits and funding change, sometimes without much notice, and nothing here is a loan approval or lending advice. A Utah Housing participating lender is the only one who can tell you what you qualify for today.