State Offers $6,000 Loans to First-Time Buyers

In today's Chicago Tribune, Mary Ellen Podmolik offers some good news for first-time buyers:

The Illinois Housing Development Authority is set to announce later today that it will offer qualifying consumers short-term, interest-free loans of up to $6,000 to be used as down payments on home purchases.

Under the program, qualifying buyers who finance their purchases through the state's Home Start Loan Program will receive a zero-interest loan for up to 3.5 percent, or up to $6,000, of the purchase price to use for a down payment when they arrange a 30-year, fixed-rate, Federal Housing Administration-insured loan through one of the state's participating lenders.

A $300 application fee is required and the down payment loan must be repaid before June 30, 2010, otherwise interest will start accruing.

Income and purchase limits apply. To participate in the program, households of three or more people can make no more than $86,135 and a single-family home can cost no more than $349,020. Veterans and active-duty military personnel don't need to be first-time buyers to participate.

More information and a list of participating lenders is available at www.ihda.org.