Massachusetts Offers Incentives for First-Time Home Buyers

First-time home buying can be exciting and scary. Buying a house can stretch your budget farther than you have stretched it before. Purchasing a home is a big responsibility. I still remember my heart pounding hard at each step of the process of burying my home.

Buying a home today is just as scary. Anyone can see that there are more homes up for sale now then there ever has been. I personally had never seen a home being auctioned off, yet there is one at the end of my street being auctioned soon.

Many have been caught with a variable rate mortgage that jumps so high, they cannot possibly meet the high payments. .

Massachusetts gives incentives to first-time home buyers if they qualify with a fixed rate.

I will delineate the program but checking with a trusted real estate agent is best and also call your City Hall's Housing Department. Information in hand will help you to decide if this is something you can reasonably do.

I recently talked to one such first-time home buyer and have been following his struggles with this process.

A major qualification he had to meet was to have an income less than $40,000. This was for a single person not for a married couple. Married couples may still qualify at a higher income level of $47,000.

The first step is getting information on your own. As suggested above, call all the housing agent in your town and check with a real estate official.

In New Bedford, two agencies helped assist in this process. One was the Community Housing Development. The other agency is Mass Housing.

The first official step in this process is to book a meeting with the director of the Community Housing Development. This meeting entails a general overview of their program and if you meet the income qualification.

Next, they will tell what you can afford for a mortgage payment. You will have to bring a list of your outstanding debt and the payments you make per month, ie; loan payments, credit card debt, current rent you pay, etc.