Low- and middle-income home buyers who enter a lottery this month could win up to $375,000 toward the purchase of a house or condo in San Francisco. The catch: When they sell the home, they must repay the assistance plus a prorated share of any appreciation.
They cannot have owned a home in the past three years and can’t make more than 175 percent of the area’s median income for their household size. A one-person household, for example, could earn up to $145,100 while a four-person one could make up to $207,200.
The down-payment assistance is a no-interest, 30-year loan that requires no monthly payments. It’s due when the owner sells, moves, transfers title or decides to repay it. At that point, the owner pays the original loan amount and a proportionate share of any increase in the home’s value (determined by the sales price or an appraisal).
A buyer who borrowed $333,000 from the program to buy a $1 million home would owe one-third of any appreciation because the loan was one-third of the purchase price. If they later sold it for $1.5 million, they’d owe the city $500,000 —the original $333,000 plus a third of the gain.