Orange County Has $70,000 for First-Time Home Buyers

Updated July 2026 | By the Erica Diaz Team, helping people with buying your first home in Central Florida

Orange County will hand a qualified first-time home buyer up to $70,000 toward a down payment. You only have to bring $500 of your own money. Those are real numbers from a real county program, and most people who qualify have never heard of it.

There is also a catch that no one explains, and it decides whether this program works for you or wastes three months of your time. We will get to it.

How much money can you actually get?

The Orange County Down Payment Assistance Program pays $70,000, $40,000, or $10,000 depending on your household income and size. Orange County set the 2026 area median family income at $97,600.

Orange County 2026 income limits, effective May 1, 2026. Source: Orange County Housing and Community Development Division.

Household size	Very low: $70,000 award	Low: $40,000 award	Moderate: $10,000 award
1	$40,250	$64,350	$96,600
2	$46,000	$73,550	$110,400
3	$51,750	$82,750	$124,200
4	$57,450	$91,900	$137,880
5	$62,050	$99,300	$148,920
6	$66,650	$106,650	$159,960
7	$71,250	$114,000	$171,000
8	$75,850	$121,350	$182,040

Read that table by household size, not by job title. A family of four earning $91,900 qualifies for $40,000. The same family earning $57,450 qualifies for $70,000. HUD resets these numbers every year.

The program exists because Central Florida wages have not kept pace with home prices. Teachers, nurses, hospitality staff, and county employees all land inside these brackets. Earn under roughly $92,000 and have not owned a home in three years? Check the table before you assume you make too much.

Do you qualify?

Three gates stand between you and the money. You must be a first-time home buyer. You need a middle credit score of 620 or better. And you must have lived in the region for the past 12 consecutive months.

First-time home buyer means you have not owned a home in the past three years. Some exceptions apply. The residency rule counts time in Orange, Osceola, Lake, Polk, Brevard, Seminole, or Volusia County, so a move from Kissimmee or Clermont still counts.

Your own contribution is small. Very low and low income buyers put in at least $500. Moderate income buyers put in at least $1,000. Both the borrower and any co-borrower need the legal right to live permanently in the United States.

The $345,000 catch

The program caps your purchase price at $345,000. The median single-family home across the Orlando market sold for $451,922 in June 2026, per Orlando Regional REALTOR Association data. Those two numbers do not meet.

So the cap steers you toward condos, townhomes, and the lower end of the single-family market. Orlando condos and townhouses carried a median sale price of $301,057 in June 2026, which fits.

Condos add a step most buyers do not expect. Your lender reviews the condo association before approving the loan. They check reserves, the owner-occupancy rate, and any pending litigation. A perfectly nice unit can fail because the association keeps weak books. Ask about the association in week one, not during your inspection period.

Here is the part that surprises people. The tier with the biggest award is the hardest one to use.

Illustrative only. Assumes a family of four, a 30-year fixed loan near 6.5%, and roughly $700 monthly for taxes, insurance, and HOA. Your lender's ratios will differ.

Income tier	Max income, family of four	Award	Realistic price range
Very low	$57,450	$70,000	Roughly $195,000 to $230,000
Low	$91,900	$40,000	Roughly $305,000 to the $345,000 cap
Moderate	$137,880	$10,000	Income supports more than the cap allows

Work through the very low tier. A family of four capped at $57,450 earns $4,787 a month. Buying at $345,000 with $70,000 down still leaves a payment near half their gross income. No lender approves that.

The low income tier lines up best. That same family at $91,900 can carry a $345,000 purchase at roughly a third of gross income. The $40,000 award covers the down payment and most closing costs.

Moderate income buyers hit the opposite wall. They can afford more house than the program permits, so the $10,000 helps only if they were shopping under $345,000 anyway.

Is it a grant or a loan?

It is a 10-year deferred loan that the county forgives a little each year. You make no monthly payment on it.

Stay in the home for the full lien period and the debt disappears. Sell, rent it out, refinance, or stop living there before then, and you repay the unforgiven balance. Roughly speaking, $70,000 forgives at about $7,000 a year.

That timeline should shape your search. If you expect a job move in four years, you would hand back a large share of the award. If this is the house you raise kids in, the money is effectively yours.

Run the clock against your actual life. Ten years is a long commitment for a first home, and many first-time home buyers outgrow a two-bedroom condo well before then.

Ask your lender about stacking, too. Florida Housing runs its own assistance programs, and some buyers combine them with county money. The rules shift, and some combinations do not work together. Let your lender confirm what current guidelines permit.

How do you apply?

Four steps, and the order matters. Skipping ahead is the most common way people lose their place in line.

Step	What you do
1	Finish a HUD-approved homebuyer education seminar. Housing and Education Alliance, Habitat Orlando and Osceola, and H.E.L.P. Community Development Corp all run approved courses. One course is enough.
2	Get a first mortgage commitment from a lender. The county requires it before your file moves.
3	Find a home inside both the $345,000 cap and your pre-approval. Single family, condo, townhouse, and modular homes all qualify. Mobile homes do not.
4	Submit the application through the county's Neighborly Software portal.

The seminar is not a formality. You leave with a certificate the county requires, and the course covers budgeting, credit, and what closing actually involves. All three providers teach in English, and H.E.L.P. Community Development Corp runs a Spanish line as well.

Funding is not unlimited, and the county reopens it in cycles. Finish step one now even if you plan to buy next spring. The education certificate does not expire the moment you get it, and the buyers who close are the ones already holding paperwork when funding opens.

You can reach the Housing and Community Development Division at 407-836-5171 or [email protected] for program questions.

Where we come in

We find you homes that clear the cap and still hold value. That sounds simple, and it is the whole job.

Under $345,000 in Orange County means townhomes and condos in Orlando, plus the more affordable pockets of Apopka and Ocoee. Start with homes for sale in Apopka, where townhomes still open in the $300,000s. Or search Central Florida listings by price to see the whole field. Our Apopka real estate agents know which HOA budgets pass a lender's review and which condo associations will not.

The Erica Diaz Team has closed more than $700 million in Central Florida sales and holds 791 five-star reviews. Zillow recognizes the team as a Premier Agent, and the Orlando Business Journal has recognized the team as well. We work every price point, and first-time home buyers get the same attention as anyone else. Read how our team works with first-time home buyers if you want a feel for the process first.