First-time home buyer Virginia programs: what helps and what it costs

Short on cash for a down payment? Someone has probably told you there are grants for that. There are, with strings. Virginia first-time home buyer programs mostly come from Virginia Housing (many people still search for it as VHDA), and every dollar has rules: income limits, price limits, a class, and the loan it rides on. Here is what each program is as of November 2026, what it really costs, and when it beats the other ways to come up with the money.

Virginia first-time home buyer programs at a glance

Every program figure on this page comes from Virginia Housing’s or Virginia Tax’s own pages or the Code of Virginia, checked on November 2, 2026. Programs change, so the linked official page is the final word.

Virginia Housing’s first mortgages, listed on its home loan options page, are all 30-year fixed: conventional with 3% down and a 640 minimum score, FHA with 3.5% down, and VA and USDA with no down payment, with scores as low as 620 on those three. Every co-borrower takes a free homebuyer education class, and most of the help above rides on one of these loans. You will see “bond” and “non-bond” a lot: in Virginia Housing’s terms, a bond loan is the first-time buyer version with income and price limits, and the non-bond (Expanded) version drops the first-time rule.

The Virginia Housing grant: down payment help you never repay

The Down Payment Assistance Grant pays up to 2% to 2.5% of the purchase price, depending on the loan type, and you never pay it back. It is for first-time buyers using a Virginia Housing bond loan, FHA or conventional, inside the income and price limits below. Virginia Housing’s grant page also says it requires a 1% down payment.

On a $300,000 home, a 2% grant is $6,000, a 2.5% grant is $7,500, and the 1% down payment is $3,000. Closing costs still need a plan: a seller credit, a lender credit, a gift or your own savings.

The Closing Cost Assistance Grant is the VA and USDA version: up to 2% of the price, never repaid, for first-time buyers using a Virginia Housing VA or USDA bond loan. Those loans need no down payment, so closing costs are most of your cash. My planning number for closing costs is 2% to 3% of the price, so a 2% grant, $6,000 on a $300,000 home, can cover most of them.

The Community Heroes Grant

The Community Heroes Grant is $10,000 for first-time buyers in eligible careers, paired with a Virginia Housing bond loan (conventional, FHA, VA or USDA). Virginia Housing’s list includes active duty service members and military veterans, the Coast Guard, the National Guard and Reservists, and the grant page has the full list and terms. If you served, read that page first: $10,000 is more than a 2% grant on any price under $500,000.

First-time buyer, unless the address changes the rule

The bond loans and the down payment and closing cost grants require first-time buyer status, but Virginia Housing waives that rule for purchases in an Area of Economic Opportunity, so check the address before you rule yourself out. Not sure you count as a first-time buyer? Start with my first-time home buyer guide for Virginia.

Virginia Housing income limits and price limits for the Richmond area

If you are looking for down payment assistance in the Richmond area, these numbers decide it. The limits apply to applications taken on or after August 1, 2026; earlier applications use the 2025 limits. The Richmond grouping covers Amelia, Charles City, Chesterfield, Colonial Heights, Dinwiddie, Goochland, Hanover, Henrico, Hopewell, King William, New Kent, Petersburg, Powhatan, Prince George, Sussex and the City of Richmond.

The Plus Second uses the limits of the first mortgage it sits behind.

Run this check before you fall for a house. A couple earning $105,000 between them is over the $96,000 grant limit but under the $120,000 bond limit, so the grant is out and the bond loan is still in. The same income with three people in the household is under the $110,000 grant limit. Virginia Housing decides which income counts and the lender confirms it from your documents, so a check at home is only a first pass.

The price limit bites sooner than the loan limits do. Around Richmond the 2026 FHA limit for one unit is $707,250 and the conforming limit is $832,750 (my Richmond-area loan limits and local costs), but the grants and bond loans stop at $550,000.

The Plus Second Mortgage: help that is a loan

The Plus Second is a second mortgage, not a grant. It lends up to 3% to 5% of the price, depending on your credit score and the type of first mortgage, and it can cover the whole down payment. It sits behind a Virginia Housing FHA or conventional first mortgage, bond or non-bond. It is a 30-year fixed loan with no prepayment penalty, open to first-time and repeat buyers, for purchases only, within the income limits. With a 680 or higher score you can also finance part of your closing costs: Virginia Housing says you “can borrow 1.5% more than the sales price.”

With a conventional first mortgage, the Plus Second has its own monthly payment, so your housing cost is two payments, not one. With an FHA first, get the second’s repayment terms in writing before you compare it with anything.

On a $300,000 home, 3% to 5% is $9,000 to $15,000, and borrowing 1.5% over the price puts your total loans at $304,500. You start out owing more than the house cost, so selling early can mean bringing money to the table.

Is down payment assistance worth it? My honest trade-offs

Straight talk: down payment assistance is not my specialty. I have mostly stayed away from it because of slow closes and timelines, and I would rather you hear that from me now than after you are under contract. It is a trade-off, not a verdict. Here is how I weigh it.

There’s no such thing as a free lunch. If a program gives you the down payment, it makes the money somewhere else, usually in the rate or in a second loan. So I ask two questions about any program: what does it cost to move in, and does it cost less over the long haul?

The timeline. Assistance adds steps: a class for every co-borrower, a second set of program rules on top of the lender’s, and often a second loan to close. If the seller wants a short closing date, that matters.

The limits. A raise, a second earner or a $560,000 house can take a grant off the table.

Here is how I run the rate question, with made-up numbers. Say a 2.5% grant on a $300,000 home comes with a rate 0.25% higher than the same loan without it.

That is my Gap, Savings, Break-Even test run backward. The grant is money up front, the higher payment is its price, and the break-even tells you how long the grant stays ahead. Sell or refinance before then and the grant won; keep the loan longer and your own cash would have cost less. The real answer comes from two quotes on the same file, on the same day.

When cash really is the barrier, assistance can be the right tool. If you cannot save $10,000 to $15,000 in a reasonable time, carrying a higher payment to get in sooner can beat waiting years.

When a Virginia Housing loan beats your other options

Assistance is not bad. I was trained early to think it was, and that view was wrong. It is a tool, and these are the jobs it does better than anything else I know:

• You fit the limits, you are short on cash, and no gift is coming. A grant you never repay can put you in a home sooner. If you can save $500 a month, a $7,500 grant is 15 months of saving.
• You are buying with VA or USDA and the seller won’t cover closing costs. No down payment still leaves closing costs, and the Closing Cost Assistance Grant fills that gap.
• You are a first-time buyer in a listed career. $10,000 from the Community Heroes Grant is hard to match.
• You have owned before but are buying in an Area of Economic Opportunity, where the first-time rule is waived.

And the times I would skip it: a family member can give you a documented gift; the seller will pay your closing costs (in my read of late 2026 this is not a seller’s market, so ask for it in the offer); you are over a limit or under the score floor; you need a short closing date to win the house; or you can cover a regular 3% or 3.5% down payment yourself and still keep reserves. In almost every case I have seen, your own down payment costs less over time. The two standard routes are on my FHA vs conventional page.

Can you do a Virginia Housing loan for me?

Ask me, and I will give you a straight answer for your file. I am a loan officer at a licensed mortgage broker: we place loans with a panel of lenders instead of lending our own money (how a broker works). Whether one of those lenders can originate a Virginia Housing loan for you, at the time you apply, is not something I will promise on a web page. Virginia Housing loans are made through lenders that participate with the agency, and virginiahousing.com is where to find one.

If I can’t, I will say so and point you to a participating lender. Some loan officers live and breathe these programs. Knowing the program is half the battle; the other half is whether you trust the person running your file.

The Virginia First-Time Home Buyer Savings Account

This one is not a loan or a grant. It is a tax break for saving. Under Virginia Code 36-170 to 36-175, the account’s earnings (interest and gains) come off your Virginia taxable income on Schedule ADJ. The deposits do not. The rules, as of November 2026:

• Who it is for: someone who lives in Virginia at settlement and has never owned a single-family home anywhere or bought one under a contract for deed. The test is its own, so don’t assume it matches a loan program’s definition of a first-time buyer.
• What it pays for: the down payment and allowable closing costs on a single-family home in Virginia, including condos, co-ops and manufactured homes.
• How much: up to $50,000 of deposits per account, and $150,000 counting earnings, in cash and marketable securities only, at a Virginia financial institution per Virginia Tax.
• The penalty: spend it on anything else and you pay back the tax break plus a 5% penalty on the exempted income, except after death, disability, bankruptcy or a transfer to another qualified beneficiary.
• The clock: the statute sets no deadline to use the money.

The math is modest. Put in $10,000 at the start of each year for three years and, at an example 4% a year, the account earns about $2,465. That $2,465 is what comes off your Virginia taxable income. I’m not a CPA, so run your own numbers with one.

The help is real, and so are the strings. Start with the money closest to you (your savings, a family gift, then the seller), then price the programs against it with real quotes, side by side, over the years you will actually live there.