Down Payment Assistance Done Right: Stack State and Local DPA With an FHA, USDA, or VA Loan

  1. Pin down your county and household numbers
    45 min

    Write the four numbers every program will test. Assistance is rationed locally: issuers publish income tables by household size and price caps by county, so a vague figure now produces a false pass or fail later.

    On one line, record:

    • Purchase county and city — where the house will sit, not where you rent today.
    • Household size — everyone who will live in the home, children included.
    • Combined gross annual income — pre-tax, every earner in the household; include base pay and average overtime or bonus over roughly two years, the way lenders do.
    • Cash available — savings you could truly bring to closing while keeping an emergency cushion intact.

    Income definitions vary slightly from guide to guide, so treat this line as a working draft you re-check against each issuer’s own table.