Down Payment Assistance in Bay County: The Actual Limits
In Bay County you can earn up to $101,554 as a one or two person household, or $116,788 with three or more, and buy a home up to $566,354. Florida Hometown Heroes will put up to $35,000 toward it at 0% — as a second mortgage you repay when you sell, not as a grant.
The two caps you have to clear
Florida Housing assistance is gated on both your income and the home’s price, and both are set per county. In Bay County the Bond-program income limit is $101,554 for a one or two person household and $116,788 for three or more, against a purchase price cap of $566,354.
The household-size distinction matters more than people expect, and so does which version of the program you use. Bond counts income for everyone 18 and older living in the home, including a spouse who is not on the loan and an adult child who lives with you. The TBA and PLUS versions count only the credit-qualifying income of the people actually on the mortgage, and those limits run higher. If a Bond limit puts you a few thousand dollars over, that is a question for a participating lender, not a dead end. Current conditions, inventory and pricing for the county are on our Bay County market page.
Which cap actually stops you here
The purchase price cap in Bay County is $566,354. The median just/market value on the county’s certified property tax roll is about $255,000, so the price cap is not your constraint here. It sits at about 2.2 times the county’s median property value, so almost the entire market is under it. The income limit is what will decide whether you qualify.
Median market value computed from the Florida Department of Revenue certified tax roll across 109,105 qualifying parcels. That is the assessor’s value of all property, not a sale-price median, so read it as a scale check rather than a list-price comparison.
What the programs actually are
Three of the four are loans, not grants. You make no monthly payment on Hometown Heroes or FL Assist, which is why they get described as free money, but the balance is a lien that comes out of your proceeds when you sell or refinance. PLUS is the one that genuinely forgives.
| Program | Amount | Rate | Forgiveness |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida Hometown Heroes | Up to $35,000 | 0%, no monthly payment | Repaid in full at sale or refinance |
| FL Assist | Up to $10,000 | 0%, no monthly payment | Repaid in full at sale or refinance |
| FL HLP Second Mortgage | Up to $12,500 | 3%, with a monthly payment | Repaid in full at sale or refinance |
| HFA Preferred / HFA Advantage PLUS | 3%, 4% or 5% of the loan amount | 0%, no monthly payment | Forgivable at 20% per year over 5 years |
Hometown Heroes is generally the only second mortgage allowed alongside its first mortgage. It does not stack with FL Assist or PLUS. Full terms, repayment triggers and the eligibility rules that disqualify most applicants are on the statewide assistance guide.
The disqualifier nobody mentions
Fully remote employees are not eligible. This is the most common reason an otherwise-qualified buyer gets denied. Your employer must have a physical Florida address you actually work from — in Bay County or anywhere else in the state — and a city name or a virtual address does not satisfy it. Hybrid employees qualify if they report to the employer’s Florida physical location at least three days a week.
Beyond that, eligibility is set by employer category and work location rather than job title, so the “teachers, nurses and first responders” framing you have seen is incomplete in both directions: many more people qualify than think they do, and a few who assume they qualify do not, including college and university employees and hospital corporate-office staff.
Timing
The 2026 allocation of $50 million opened July 13, 2026 and is reserved first come first served through participating lenders. The previous allocation was fully committed before this relaunch. Availability changes daily and is not published as a live balance. Confirm current status with a participating lender before you rely on it.
The costs assistance does not cover
Down payment help solves the entry cost. It does nothing about the two Florida carrying costs that catch first buyers: homeowners insurance, and the property tax reset — the current owner’s tax bill is held down by the Save Our Homes cap and yours resets toward what you pay, which is often the largest single surprise in the first year. Budget both before you decide what you can afford, not after.
Momentum Realty is a real estate brokerage. We are not a lender, not a mortgage broker, and not Florida Housing. Nothing here is a loan offer, a pre-qualification, or a promise that you will be approved or that money will still be available when you apply. Program terms and county limits are reproduced from published Florida Housing materials with their dates; they change, and a participating lender is the only place to confirm what applies to you today. We publish this because the numbers are hard to find in one place, not because we originate the loans. Equal Housing Opportunity.
County income and purchase price limits: Florida Housing Finance Corporation income and purchase price limits, published June 10, 2026 and applying to reservations made on or after May 6, 2026. Published limit tables as mirrored by Florida Housing participating lenders; county figures cross-checked against two independent publications. Program structure, repayment terms, and eligibility rules: Florida Housing Finance Corporation program terms as published by participating lenders, 2026-07-06. Funding status: Florida Housing program announcements as reported by participating lenders, 2026-07-06. County median market value, where shown, from the Florida Department of Revenue certified tax roll. Where a figure could not be verified against a dated published source, it is omitted rather than estimated.