Buying a home in Lompoc
Lompoc is an incorporated city, and the City of Lompoc's own code requires a sprinkler system in every new home and a development permit before anything is built in one of FEMA's special flood hazard areas. The City also runs a deferred loan for first-time buyers inside the city limits, and the State Fire Marshal's map shows Very High, High and Moderate zones in parts of town.
Lompoc at a glance
What the public records say about building, insuring and lending here. Each line names the record it was read from.
- Local government
- An incorporated city whose Planning Division reviews residential, commercial and industrial applications for consistency with the General Plan and the Municipal Code.Source: City of Lompoc, Planning Division
- Fire hazard zones
- The State Fire Marshal's map for local responsibility areas shows Very High, High and Moderate zones in parts of the city.Source: State Fire Marshal, fire hazard severity zone map
- Flooding
- FEMA maps flood zones, a regulatory floodway included, along the Santa Ynez River, San Miguelito Creek, Santa Lucia Canyon and the drainage channels inside the city.Source: FEMA Flood Map Service Center, Lompoc
- USDA home loans
- The civic center address is outside the eligible area on USDA's map, and USDA says viewing the map does not constitute a final determination.Source: USDA Rural Development, property eligibility map
- Accessory dwelling units
- Approved through the building permit process without a hearing. An ADU may be rented apart from the main home, but not for a term shorter than thirty-one consecutive days.Source: City of Lompoc Municipal Code, section 17.404.020, accessory dwelling units
- Homebuyer assistance
- The City's Housing Division runs the Lompoc Homebuyer Assistance Program, a deferred loan for first-time buyers with low to moderate incomes on owner-occupied single-family homes inside the city limits.Source: City of Lompoc, CDBG and Housing Division, Homebuyer Assistance Program
- Utilities
- The City itself runs the water, electric, wastewater and solid waste utilities for every home and business in the city.Source: City of Lompoc, Utilities Department
- Fire sprinklers
- The City's building code requires an automatic sprinkler system throughout every new home, manufactured and mobile homes included.Source: City of Lompoc Municipal Code, chapter 15.04, construction regulations
- Vandenberg Space Force Base
- By the base's own directions, its main gate is reached from Lompoc by North H Street and the highway north of town, and the base's Lompoc Gate is not always open.Source: Vandenberg Space Force Base, directions to the main gate
What a loan meets in Lompoc
Rules in the public record that can bear on buying in Lompoc.
A City permit before building in a flood zone
The City's floodplain chapter adopts FEMA's flood insurance study and maps and requires a development permit before any construction in a special flood hazard area. A new or substantially improved home there has to have its floor elevated and certified by an engineer or surveyor, and the chapter lists notifying potential buyers that a property is in such an area among its purposes.
Sources:City of Lompoc Municipal Code, chapter 15.48, floodplain managementFEMA Flood Map Service Center, Lompoc
Fire zones the City has designated
The State Fire Marshal's map shows Very High, High and Moderate zones in parts of the city, and the City's ordinance list records an ordinance designating fire hazard severity zones. The City's building code also bars wood shake and shingle roofs on any building unless the system is listed as a Class A roof covering.
Sources:State Fire Marshal, fire hazard severity zone mapCity of Lompoc Municipal Code, ordinance listCity of Lompoc Municipal Code, chapter 15.04, construction regulations
A sprinkler rule that reaches remodels
The City's building code requires an automatic sprinkler system throughout every new home. An existing home whose additions or alterations remove or replace half or more of its wall length within a two-year period has to meet that new-construction rule as well. A detached ADU is excepted only on the conditions the code lists.
Sources:City of Lompoc Municipal Code, chapter 15.04, construction regulations
An ADU that cannot be a vacation rental
The City approves an ADU through the building permit process without a hearing, bars renting one for less than thirty-one consecutive days, and does not allow it to be sold apart from the main home except as State law provides. A junior ADU requires the owner to live on the property and a recorded deed restriction. The City has approved a permit-ready ADU plan program and says the plans are still being drafted.
Sources:City of Lompoc Municipal Code, section 17.404.020, accessory dwelling unitsCity of Lompoc, Permit Ready Accessory Dwelling Unit program
The City's own homebuyer loan
The Lompoc Homebuyer Assistance Program is a City housing trust fund loan with no monthly payment, repaid when the first mortgage is refinanced, the home is sold, title is transferred, the loan defaults or it matures. The home has to be an owner-occupied single-family home on a permanent foundation with its own deed inside the city limits, and the buyer a first-time buyer under the program's income limit. The application goes through a first mortgage lender the City has approved.
Sources:City of Lompoc, CDBG and Housing Division, Homebuyer Assistance Program
Water from the City's own plant
The City treats and distributes its own drinking water through a conventional treatment plant and a smaller springs plant, and its Groundwater Management Plan covers the Lompoc Plain Sub-Basin, where the City says it is located. The City Council has also adopted a Safety Element covering flood hazards, fire hazards, seismicity and aviation hazards.
Sources:City of Lompoc, Water DivisionCity of Lompoc, Safety Element
Loans that come up in Lompoc
Programs with a rule that touches something on this page, and the rule. Other programs can work here too.
- VA loan
By the base's own directions, Vandenberg Space Force Base's main gate is reached from Lompoc by North H Street and the highway north of town, so a VA loan comes up for a buyer stationed there, and VA's own eligibility rules decide who may use one.
- Conventional loan
A conventional loan fits a price up to Santa Barbara County's conforming loan limit, which the limits page prints; above the limit the loan is a jumbo.
- FHA loan
FHA's limit for Santa Barbara County, as HUD's lookup states it, is the same figure as the conforming loan limit, and the limits page prints both, so an FHA loan reaches the same price line here as a conventional one.
- Construction loan
Every new home in the city needs an automatic sprinkler system under the City's building code, and a lot in a special flood hazard area needs the City's development permit and an elevated, certified floor.
- Renovation loan
A remodel that removes or replaces half or more of a home's wall length within a two-year period brings the City's new-construction sprinkler rule with it, which belongs in the budget a renovation loan is sized on.
- ADU financing
The City approves an ADU through the building permit process without a hearing, sets a thirty-one day minimum rental term, and has approved a permit-ready plan program whose plans are still being drafted.
- DSCR loan
A DSCR loan rests on rent, and in Lompoc an ADU's rent is a lease of thirty-one days or more, while a bed and breakfast outside the residential agriculture zone needs a minor use permit from the City in the residential zones that allow it.
Our services in Lompoc
What each of these means here, from the records this page cites. The service pages explain each in full.
Pre-qualification letter in Lompoc
When you make an offer in Lompoc, the listing agent reads your pre-qualification letter for the program it names and the amount it supports. If the price is above the conforming loan limit, the letter has to name a jumbo loan rather than a conventional one, and Santa Barbara County's limit is its own figure. If you plan to use the City's Homebuyer Assistance Program, the City's page says to apply through a first mortgage lender the City has approved, so that choice comes before the letter is written. The City's deferred loan has no monthly payment, which changes what the first mortgage carries. A home in one of FEMA's special flood hazard areas carries a flood insurance premium a lender counts in your payment, and the City's floodplain chapter requires its own permit before any construction there. The State Fire Marshal's map shows Very High, High and Moderate zones in parts of the city, which bear on the fire insurance quote behind the same payment. A newly built home here has a sprinkler system by the City's code, and an appraiser notes it. Our letter names the program and the amount your file supports and says plainly that it is not a commitment to lend.
Sources:FHFA conforming loan limits by countyCity of Lompoc, CDBG and Housing Division, Homebuyer Assistance ProgramCity of Lompoc Municipal Code, chapter 15.48, floodplain managementFEMA Flood Map Service Center, LompocState Fire Marshal, fire hazard severity zone mapCity of Lompoc Municipal Code, chapter 15.04, construction regulations
Investment property in Lompoc
A DSCR loan rests on the rent a lender can count, and Lompoc's code sets the terms that rent can take. An ADU may be rented apart from the main home, but the City's ADU section bars any rental term shorter than thirty-one consecutive days. So an ADU you finance to rent is qualified on a lease, not on nightly income. The City defines a bed and breakfast as an owner's primary residence with rooms rented for stays of thirty consecutive days or less. It is a permitted use in the residential agriculture zone and needs a minor use permit in the other residential zones that allow it. The City's transient occupancy tax chapter treats any stay of thirty consecutive days or less as transient and requires each operator renting to transients to register with the City's tax administrator. Those are the records a lender reads when it asks what rent a Lompoc property can earn. The City also bars selling an ADU apart from the main home except as State law provides, so the unit stays part of the one property you are financing. If your plan depends on short stays, the City's permit comes first and your lease rent is what the file is sized on.
Sources:City of Lompoc Municipal Code, section 17.404.020, accessory dwelling unitsCity of Lompoc Municipal Code, chapter 17.208, residential zonesCity of Lompoc Municipal Code, chapter 3.12, transient occupancy tax
More on the Central Coast:The Central Coast, town by townThe county's loan limitsCentral Coast questions
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This page is general information about buying in Lompoc, not an offer of credit or a commitment to lend. The records it cites change, and what a lender will do with a file depends on the file.
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