We had lender credits plus earnest money that offset the interest owed by quite a bit. For closing Feb 6th, we had about $750 in interest to pay but with the credits applied, we only owed $133 at closing. The amount was so small that they let me write a personal check for it. On Wed, I'm sending off my second mortgage payment for April. My mortgage has already been sold to the housing authority for servicing. The housing authority paid my downpayment in full and it is rolled into a second mortgage. I had $8000 in closing costs that the builder paid in full. It is a great program I am in and wouldn't have been able to afford the upfront costs associated with a $347,900 home without this program. We were able to purchase our dream home through this program. So I always encourage folks to look around to see what's available. It was 100% financing but I recently found out the value of the home shot up $20K so I have equity already. New construction homes are really increasing in value across the US. There are others that bought a new construction home that found out it would costs much more if they went on Contract today. I know I am rambling off topic but I feel the need to reiterate these things. Don't be afraid of new construction homes. We found an inventory home fully built and that already had tons of upgrades. If you are not willing to wait to build, look at their inventory as a lot of times you can get a great deal. And the newer homes are extremely energy efficient. It costs me only $150 a month for heat/electricity for 3700 sq ft home in the cold winter months. It costs the same amount when I was renting a 1467 sq ft home. With new construction homes, maintenance costs are lower because of the warranty (we have a 5 year warranty on ours).
The program I went through is called the CHFA Homeopeners Plus Program. For folks in Colorado that are interested, their website is
www.chfainfo.com I had to put down $2000 earnest, $425 for the inspection, and $133 at closing. It saved us a lot of money to get the furniture and electronics we desperately needed.
