The honest Clayton County programs guide

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There are eighteen programs written out on this site. Most buyers need two or three of them, stacked in the right order. Nobody needs all eighteen. This page is the map.

One thing before the list. A down payment program is not a prize you win. It is financing with rules attached, and the rules are the whole story. Every program below links to its own page, where I have written out the income limits, the credit minimums, the price caps and the catch. That includes the programs where you would be better off with a different agent.

The money that helps with the down payment

• Georgia Dream - up to $10,000, statewide. First-time buyer unless you are buying in a targeted area, 640 credit, income under $137,555 for one or two people and $158,188 for three or more, and a liquid asset ceiling of $20,000 or 20% of the sales price, whichever is greater. It is a 0% second mortgage, not a grant.
• Georgia Dream PEN - the same program at $12,500 if you are a protector, educator or nurse. Active and retired military count.
• Georgia Dream CHOICE - the same $12,500 if someone in the household has a disability.
• Georgia Dream Peach Plus - the same kind of help with no first-time buyer requirement, and an income ceiling of $206,333 for one or two people in metro Atlanta instead of $137,555. If standard Georgia Dream said no, start here.
• Georgia Dream Peach Advantage - 2% to 5% on a conventional loan, income to 150% of area median, and a no-assistance option that buys you a lower rate instead.
• Clayton County DPA - up to $7,500, or $10,000 for veterans, first responders, teachers, nurses and county employees. Income at or below 80% of area median, price under $270,000, single-family detached, inside the county line.
• National Faith HomeBuyers - free HUD-approved counseling and generally $5,000 to $15,000.
• ANDP and FHLBank Atlanta - generally $15,000 to $20,000, tiered by income, first come first served. The money runs out.

That $270,000 cap on the county money deserves a second look, because it is the number people assume rules them out. The median single-family sale in 30296 is $251,450, which leaves roughly $18,550 of room under the ceiling. In 30274 it is $215,000. This program was built for this market, and it fits.

The loan underneath it

Down payment help sits on top of a mortgage, and which mortgage you choose changes what the help is actually worth.

• FHA 203(b) - 3.5% down at a 580 score, 10% down between 500 and 579. No income cap on the loan. The mortgage insurance does not fall off.
• Conventional 97 - 3% down, 620 minimum, and the PMI cancels once you reach 80% loan-to-value. The pricing gets good around 720.
• VA home loan - zero down, and no monthly mortgage insurance, ever.
• USDA 502 Guaranteed - I keep a page on it, and the honest answer is that it does not work in Clayton County. We sit inside the Atlanta metro. You have to go 35 to 45 miles out before the map opens up.

If you served

• VA home loan - the funding fee runs 1.25% to 3.3%, and it is waived completely at a 10% disability rating or higher.
• Peach Select VA - Georgia's VA pairing. It will not stack with the Georgia Dream second mortgage. One or the other, not both. It does pair with the Clayton County veteran tier.
• Disabled veteran homestead - up to $121,812 off your assessed value (2025 ceiling, indexed annually), filed by April 1 with your rating letter, DD-214 and deed.

If the house needs work

• FHA 203(k) - one loan that covers the purchase and the renovation. This is the one that turns a tired brick ranch into the house you actually wanted.

The ones that lower the monthly payment instead of the down payment

• Mortgage Credit Certificate - up to $2,000 a year off your federal tax bill, every year you live in the house. It opens and closes with funding cycles, so timing matters.
• Clayton senior homestead - 65 or older by January 1, with an income test that excludes Social Security. File by April 1.

If you are 62 or older

• HECM for Purchase - buy with roughly 45% to 62% down and carry no monthly mortgage payment. The balance grows instead of shrinking and the closing costs are higher, which is why the page walks through both sides honestly.

Two rules that trip people up

One tier per purchase on Georgia Dream. Standard, PEN and CHOICE are three doors into the same room. You walk through one.

Peach Select VA and the Georgia Dream second do not stack. If you are a veteran, that is a real decision with real money on both sides, and it is worth running the numbers before you pick.

Nearly all of these need an approved lender and the eight-hour homebuyer class before closing. Take the class early. It is the single most common thing that holds up a closing, and it is entirely avoidable.

Stacked right, the help reaches about $22,500

That is not a headline number, it is arithmetic, and it depends completely on which doors you actually qualify to walk through. Some buyers get there. Some get half. A few get more, because a tax credit and a homestead exemption keep paying every year after closing while a down payment grant only pays once.

Do not read eighteen pages. Answer nine questions.

Everything above is the map. If you would rather skip to your own situation, the down payment quiz asks nine questions about where you actually are and tells you which of these programs apply to you. On the screen, right then. No login, no email, no waiting for somebody to call you back.

If you would rather hear it from a person, the homebuyer workshop is the session after the required class, where we go through this same list with your numbers in the room.

And if you want to walk it with me, that is what I am here for. No pressure, no pitch, just a straight answer from somebody who has lived in Clayton County since 1989.