If you live in the Bay Area and have always dreamed about buying a house there, you will be happy to know that Wells Fargo launched NeighborhoodLIFT in your area. NeighborhoodLIFT is a collaboration between the Community Housing Development Corporation and NeighborhoodWorks and is sponsored by the Wells Fargo Foundation. The goal of this program is to boost homeownership by providing $25,000 in down payment assistance for 359 Bay Area homebuyers. That includes Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Solano. In this area, you know how expensive housing can be, and how impossible it can seem to own a home, but NeighborhoodLIFT can make it happen. Additional to this down payment assistance, $525,000 of the NeighborhoodLIFT program's $9.5 million in funding will go towards housing counseling organizations. The funding will allow for the counseling of 700 homebuyers, which is great news for anyone in need of assistance during the homebuying process.  

Who is eligible?

Everyone in the Bay Area who earns 80% or less of the median household income in their county should apply for this program. Furthermore, you also have to be pre-approved for the NeighborhoodLIFT program from a lender that participates. You must also take an eight-hour homebuyer education course. This will make sure you are well prepared to purchase a home, and could be very helpful to you! A lottery system will be used if more than 359 people apply for assistance.  

How and when can I apply?

NeighborhoodLIFT applications will be open on February 1, 2021. You can only apply for a week, so mark it in your calendar! To learn more about the program and figure out how to apply, you can visit www.wellsfargo.com/lift. If you want to know which lenders are participating and get yourself enrolled in a homebuyer education course, head over to www.communityhdc.org/lift.