Down Payment Assistance in Los Angeles: What You Can Actually Get in 2026

Figures verified August 26, 2026

Most articles about down payment help in Los Angeles are quietly out of date. They quote last year’s income limits, list application rounds that closed months ago, and skip the one rule that decides whether you can combine two programs at all. This page carries current numbers, the actual 2026 reservation dates, and the stacking rule that trips people up.

If you are buying your first home in Los Angeles, you are probably not short on income. You are short on the cash for a down payment. That is the gap these programs exist to close, and in this county the amounts are large enough to change what you can afford: up to $161,000 from the City of Los Angeles, up to $100,000 from the County, or a percentage-based second from the state.

The catch is that they run on limited allocations and dated reservation rounds. Being eligible is not the same as getting funded. Timing matters as much as qualifying, which is why this page leads with the calendar.

Before anything else: City of Los Angeles, or unincorporated County?

This one question decides which programs you can even apply to, and it is settled by the parcel, not by your income or your credit. The City of Los Angeles runs LIPA and MIPA. Los Angeles County runs HOP. They are separate programs from separate agencies, and the City of Los Angeles is not on LACDA’s list of HOP participating cities. So a City address cannot use HOP, and an unincorporated address cannot use LIPA or MIPA.

In South LA, East LA and Northeast LA that boundary runs straight through the search area. Boyle Heights is City. East Los Angeles, one street over, is unincorporated County. Most of South LA is City, but Florence-Firestone, Walnut Park, Willowbrook, West Athens and View Park-Windsor Hills are not. All of Northeast LA, Highland Park through El Sereno, is City. Buyers cross that line in a single afternoon of showings without anyone mentioning it.

How to check which side you are on

Do not guess from the mailing address. A Los Angeles mailing address and a City of Los Angeles jurisdiction are not the same thing, and ZIP codes cross the boundary. 90022 and 90063 both straddle it.

• Have a participating lender pull the parcel before you write an offer. This is the only answer that counts, because the lender is the one who submits the application and confirms jurisdiction as part of it. LACDA’s HOP participating lender list was last updated in June 2026 and runs to over a hundred lenders.
• LA County Planning’s jurisdiction lookup, at planning.lacounty.gov, will tell you whether an address falls in an unincorporated area.
• The County Assessor’s parcel record shows the city field for any address, which reads either as a city name or as unincorporated.

If you are working with me, this is a check I run before we tour anything. It takes about a minute, and it has changed which neighborhoods a client was searching more than once.

The four routes, side by side

City and County programs are geographic. LIPA and MIPA are for homes inside Los Angeles city limits. HOP is for the unincorporated County and participating cities. If you are weighing neighborhoods, that boundary is worth checking before you fall in love with a listing. My Northeast LA neighborhood guide covers the areas where these price caps still buy something.

City of Los Angeles: LIPA

LIPA is the largest single source of down payment help available to an LA city buyer. It is a silent second: no monthly payment, repaid when you sell, refinance, or transfer the home.

• Amount: up to $161,000
• Maximum purchase price: $956,465
• Credit: 660 middle FICO score
• Your own money: at least 1% of the purchase price from your own funds
• Education: an 8-hour homebuyer class plus counseling from an LAHD-approved provider

LIPA income limits (80% AMI)

City of Los Angeles: MIPA

MIPA is the companion program for households that earn too much for LIPA. The requirements are otherwise identical: same $956,465 price cap, same 660 FICO, same 1% of your own funds, same 8-hour class.

The important difference is that MIPA is a band, not a ceiling. It has a floor as well as a maximum. Earn below the floor and you belong in LIPA, not MIPA. Applying to the wrong tier does not get you redirected, it costs you the round.

• Amount: up to $115,000
• Income band, 1 person: $93,301 to $128,300
• Income band, 8 people: $175,901 to $241,900

The sizes in between scale proportionally. Confirm your exact household size against LAHD’s current table before you file, since the band edges move when the area median income is republished.

The part nobody puts in the headline: reservation rounds

LAHD does not take applications continuously. It opens dated reservation rounds with a fixed number of slots, and when the slots are gone the round is closed regardless of how well you qualify.

The August 19 LIPA round has already passed. That leaves 40 LIPA slots for the entire rest of the year, in a city of four million people. Read that number again before you decide to start the process “sometime this fall.”

What it means in practice: the paperwork, the class, the counseling and the lender pre-approval all need to be finished before a round opens, not started when one does. Buyers who treat the round date as a deadline rather than a starting gun are the ones who get funded.

LAHD can be reached at (213) 808-8800 or [email protected]. Confirm the round dates directly with them, since a round can be added, moved, or filled early.

Los Angeles County: the Home Ownership Program

If the home is in the unincorporated County or a participating city rather than inside LA city limits, LACDA’s HOP is your route.

• Amount: up to $100,000, or 20% of the purchase price, whichever is less
• Price cap: $700,000 on the standard tier, $850,000 on the upper tier
• Income limits: effective August 24, 2026
• First-time definition: no ownership interest in a home in the past three years
• Your own money: at least 1% of the purchase price
• Education: an 8-hour HUD-approved homebuyer course
• Homes built before 1978: a lead paint inspection is required

One note that will save you a confusing afternoon: LACDA refers to its upper tier by two different names on the same page. Do not try to reconcile the labels, just ask which tier your income and purchase price fall into and work from the number they give you.

State of California: CalHFA MyHome

MyHome is a deferred-payment junior loan from the state, sized as a percentage rather than a flat amount.

• 3.50% of the sales price or appraised value, whichever is less, on an FHA first mortgage
• 3.00% on a conventional, USDA or VA first mortgage
• Maximum combined loan-to-value of 105%

Income limits vary by county and CalHFA updates them on its own schedule, so check the current Los Angeles County figure on CalHFA’s MyHome program sheet rather than trusting a number you read anywhere else, including here.

Dream For All: closed, but worth preparing for

CalHFA’s Dream For All shared appreciation loan closed its application window on March 16, 2026. When it ran, it offered up to 20% of the purchase price, capped at $150,000.

Its eligibility rules are the reason to keep watching it. Dream For All required at least one first-generation borrower, meaning no parent has owned a home, along with all borrowers being first-time buyers and at least one being a California resident. That is an unusually narrow door, and it happens to fit a large share of the buyers I work with across South LA, East LA and Northeast LA.

No next round has been announced. If you would qualify, the useful move is to have your file assembled now so you are not building it from scratch when a window opens with days of notice.

Mortgage Credit Certificate: currently unavailable

The City of Los Angeles Mortgage Credit Certificate program is out of funding, with no announced reopening date. It appears on plenty of “LA down payment help” lists that have not been updated. If a lender or article offers it to you as part of your plan right now, that is a signal to check how current the rest of their information is.

What shared appreciation actually costs you

The city and county programs both take a share of your appreciation when you sell. That is the trade rather than a catch, and it is worth seeing the number before you sign, not at closing on your next home.

LAHD sets its share by dividing the loan by the purchase price. In the worked example the department publishes, a $161,000 loan against a $536,666 purchase price gives the City a 30 percent share. If the property shows $183,967 in net appreciation, after transaction costs, your down payment and eligible capital improvements are deducted, the City takes $55,190. You repay the $161,000 principal plus that share.

What you keep is the remaining appreciation and every dollar of principal you paid down, and you paid no interest and made no monthly payment on the assistance for the whole time you owned the home. The county program works the same way: zero interest, deferred, with a share of appreciation due on sale, transfer of title, or when the home stops being owner-occupied.

Whether that trade is worth taking depends on the alternative. Measure it against what you would pay in rent over the same years, not against an imaginary version of the purchase where you already had the down payment.

Three more that belong in the plan, and are usually left out

Ask every lender you interview one specific question: are you an FHLBank San Francisco member participating in this year’s WISH program? Most will say no. The one who says yes may be worth switching to on that basis alone.

What to actually do, in order

1. Establish which jurisdiction your target homes are in. City of LA points you at LIPA or MIPA. Unincorporated County or a participating city points you at HOP. This decision comes before everything else.
2. Get a real pre-approval, not an online estimate. These programs need a lender who has actually closed them, because the second lien mechanics are where deals break.
3. Finish the 8-hour class and counseling early. It is a prerequisite, not a formality, and approved-provider calendars fill.
4. Confirm your income tier against the current table. Particularly for MIPA, where being under the floor puts you in the wrong program.
5. Line the file up against the next reservation round. Work backward from the date on the calendar above.
6. Start looking with the price cap as a hard number. A home over $956,465 in the city, or over the HOP tier cap in the county, disqualifies the whole plan no matter how well you qualify.

If you are at the very beginning of this, my step by step guide to buying a home in Los Angeles covers the wider process, and the first-time buyer page explains how I work with buyers using these programs. Already own and thinking about the next one? That is a different path, covered on the move-up buyer page.

The lender piece

Assistance programs live or die on the lender. A loan officer who has not closed a LIPA or a HOP file will not know how the second lien is recorded, will not have the approved-provider relationships, and will discover the CalHFA stacking rule at the worst possible moment.

Common questions

Do I have to pay this money back?

Yes, but not monthly. LIPA, MIPA, HOP and MyHome are all deferred second loans. You repay when you sell, refinance, or transfer the property. Some carry shared appreciation terms, meaning the repayment amount is tied to how much the home has gained in value. Read the specific note before you sign, because the terms differ between programs.

Can I combine city assistance with the state’s MyHome?

No. MyHome requires a CalHFA first mortgage and must sit in second lien position, which the city program already occupies. LAHD and CalHFA are alternative routes. Pick one.

What counts as a first-time buyer?

For LACDA’s HOP, it means no ownership interest in a home during the past three years. So a previous owner can qualify again after enough time has passed. Definitions vary slightly between programs, so confirm against the one you are applying to.

Do I still need my own money?

Yes. Both the city programs and the county program require at least 1% of the purchase price from your own funds. Assistance closes the gap, it does not eliminate the requirement entirely.

My credit is below 660. Is that the end of it?

For LIPA and MIPA, 660 is the middle-score requirement, so it is a real gate. It is also frequently a fixable one over a few months. If you are close, that is worth a conversation before you rule yourself out, especially given how far out the next reservation rounds are.

How much home does the price cap actually buy?

More than people expect in parts of South LA, East LA, Northeast LA and the Long Beach corridor, and almost nothing on the Westside. The cap is what makes neighborhood selection the single highest-leverage decision in this process.

Alex Maldonado Miranda is a licensed California real estate agent, DRE #02196988, working through Circle Real Estate. He works with first-time and first-generation buyers across South Los Angeles, East Los Angeles and Northeast Los Angeles. Call or text (323) 688-4710, or use the contact page.

Program terms, income limits, price caps and reservation dates change without much notice, and the figures on this page were verified on August 26, 2026. Always confirm current details directly with LAHD, LACDA or CalHFA before making a decision. This page is general information about publicly available programs, not lending, tax or legal advice.

If you are the first in your family to buy, the companion piece to this one is the first-generation homebuyer guide, which covers the parts of the process nobody at home can walk you through.