The California Dream For All Shared Appreciation Loan is CalHFA's down payment and closing cost help for first-generation homebuyers, paired with a Dream For All Conventional first mortgage. It is repaid when the home is sold or transferred or the first mortgage is paid off, as the original loan plus a share of the home's appreciation. It is not open all year: CalHFA takes voucher applications during a window it announces, draws applicants at random, and issues vouchers to the ones it selects. As of our last reading of CalHFA's page, the application portal is closed; the latest round's vouchers were released in the spring, and CalHFA announces any further round on its Dream For All page and in its email news. We work through a CalHFA-approved wholesale lender on Dream For All loans, and CalHFA decides when a round opens and who receives a voucher. This page explains the shared appreciation, who is eligible, how a round runs, and how to be ready before the next one is announced.
What a lender weighs before this program is on the table. A lender can add rules of its own, and those rules can differ from one lender to the next.
CalHFA's definition: no ownership interest in a principal residence, and no living in a home owned by a spouse, during a look-back period CalHFA sets. Someone who owned a home longer ago than that period can qualify again. There is no exception for one borrower: all of them must meet it.
At least one borrower must meet CalHFA's first-generation definition, in two parts. First, that borrower has not been on title, held an ownership interest or been named on a mortgage to a home in the United States within a separate look-back period CalHFA sets. Second, either that borrower's parents, biological or adoptive, have no present ownership interest in a home in the United States, as far as that borrower knows (or, if deceased, had none at death), or the borrower was at any time placed in foster care or institutional care. The application asks for the parents' names and addresses or proof of the relationship, and for foster care documentation where that is the route.
At least one borrower must currently live in California. Every borrower must be a United States citizen, other national, or a qualified alien as federal law defines the term. Every borrower occupies the home as a primary residence, and CalHFA allows no non-occupant co-borrower and no co-signer.
CalHFA publishes a separate income limit for Dream For All, by county, and revises it, so a figure printed here would go stale. Your loan officer runs your qualifying income against the current limit for the county you are buying in. Income also sets the appreciation share: a household at or below the area's median income tier CalHFA names owes the reduced share.
CalHFA's standard homebuyer education and counseling, completed by one occupying first-time borrower through a provider CalHFA accepts, and a separate Dream For All course on what shared appreciation is and how it affects repayment, which CalHFA delivers online and describes as free. Finish both before the file is close to closing, not after.
The steps in order, so you can see what is coming. Nothing here is underwritten until a lender underwrites it.
Who will be on the loan, whether each has owned a home within CalHFA's look-back period, whether one of you meets the first-generation test, where you live now, and what the household earns. That is enough to say whether Dream For All is in reach, and which CalHFA program fits if it is not.
The voucher application needs a letter from a CalHFA-approved lender on CalHFA's own form, prepared before the window opens. A broker reaches that lender through a CalHFA-approved wholesale lender. CalHFA has told lenders and brokers to prepare these letters ahead of a round, which is why being ready early matters.
When CalHFA announces a window, you create a portal account and submit one application for the household, with the lender letter, your identification, the parent information or proof of relationship the first-generation test asks for, and foster care documentation where that is the route. A random drawing follows, by region, with a waitlist, and CalHFA notifies you in the portal and by email.
A selected applicant has a limited period CalHFA sets to find a home, sign a purchase contract and have the lender reserve the loan in CalHFA's system before the voucher expires. The education courses, the first mortgage's underwriting and the closing follow, with the shared appreciation loan recorded behind the first mortgage.
CalHFA announces a Dream For All round on its own page and in its email news, and the voucher application needs a lender letter before the portal opens. Leave your details so a loan officer here can get in touch when CalHFA announces a round and the letter needs to be ready.
Call or write to us and a loan officer here reads what you send. If you are ready, the application is open.
If yours is not here, call us. The useful answer depends on your file.
Not as of our last reading of CalHFA's page: the application portal is closed, and no new applications can be started. The latest round's vouchers were released in the spring, and CalHFA announces any further round on its Dream For All page and in its email news. We will not tell you a round is coming until CalHFA says so.
Payments are deferred while you hold the first mortgage. When the home is sold or transferred, or the first mortgage is paid off or refinanced, you repay the original loan plus a share of the home's gain in value. The share is tied to the size of the loan relative to the home's value, a household at a lower income owes a reduced share, and CalHFA caps the total appreciation owed as a multiple of the original loan. If the home has not gained value, the original loan is still due.
Only one borrower has to meet the definition. That borrower has not been on title, held an ownership interest or been named on a mortgage to a home in the United States within the look-back period CalHFA sets, and either their parents have no present ownership interest in a home in the United States, or the borrower was at any time placed in foster care or institutional care. Every borrower, separately, must be a first-time homebuyer under CalHFA's definition.
Not with MyHome: CalHFA does not allow its MyHome assistance on a Dream For All Conventional first mortgage that carries the shared appreciation loan. A loan that meets Fannie Mae's Community Seconds guidelines and sits behind the shared appreciation loan may be combined with it, and the shared appreciation loan must stay in second position.
No. CalHFA takes no applications itself. The loan is written by a CalHFA-approved lender, and a broker works through a CalHFA-approved wholesale lender to process it. The voucher application you submit in CalHFA's portal during a window needs a lender letter on CalHFA's form first, so the first call is to a lender or a loan officer, not to the agency.
State first-time buyer help
California's own first-time buyer programs: a CalHFA first mortgage, MyHome assistance, and ZIP for closing costs, written through approved lenders.
Not government-insured
A loan for solid credit and income, with private mortgage insurance that does not have to be permanent.
Government-insured
Government-insured, with credit score tiers HUD publishes.
Where this program fits:Buying a homeRefinancingThe county's loan limitsThe Central CoastServices
The county seats:San Luis ObispoSanta Barbara
Run the numbers:Mortgage payment calculator
Read more:First-time buyer programs in California
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This page is general information about a loan program, not an offer of credit or a commitment to lend. What a lender will do with your file depends on the file.
Answer a few questions and your loan officer can talk you through which programs could fit your file, including when this one does not.
No credit pull to get started. This is not a commitment to lend. Equal Housing Opportunity.
