The federal tax credit for first-time homebuyers ended in the spring and probably won’t be coming back, but similar help is still available for those living in Atlantic and Ocean counties. As much as $20,000 in down payment and closing-cost assistance for first-time buyers is available through the Atlantic County Improvement Authority.

John Lamey, executive director of the authority, said the county has participated since 2004 in the Home Investment Partnership Program of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Each September, the authority gets about $300,000 for the program, he said, and this year’s funding has already been approved.

“It’s for first-time homebuyers, people who have not owned a home in the last three years,” said Lamey, 52, of Somers Point. “The house can be anywhere in the county, except for Atlantic City.”

That’s because a separate authority-administered program provides as much as $30,000 for closing costs and down payments for city properties.

The Atlantic City Down Payment Assistance Program, funded by luxury taxes, has about $2 million available, said Joseph Giralo, program administrator for the authority.

In the city program, aid can cover a down payment of as much as 10 percent of the purchase price and closing costs as much as $5,000, he said.

Besides housing location, the key difference between the county and city programs is that while both are deferred loan programs, the loan can be forgiven for county home buyers after five or 10 years.

“If people borrow under $15,000 and stay in the home five years, it’s totally forgiven so it becomes a true grant program,” said Jill Valentine, director of agents for Balsley Losco Real Estate in Northfield, where she lives.

Giralo said the requirement to live in the house allows the program to stimulate home ownership “and prevent somebody from going in and flipping it.”

Both programs require that buyers get prequalification for an approved mortgage, so Bank of America Home Loans also participated to get applicants started.

“The programs take some effort on the part of homebuyers,” Valentine said. Besides prequalifying for the mortgage, they must find an appropriate house.

“You can’t get the aid in place and go shopping,” she said.

Buyers also have to take a short course, the HUD Approved Buyers Counseling and Education Program, before settlement, she said.

Participants have found the effort well worth it.

“People are just so grateful and enthusiastic when they’re told about it,” she said. Last year, the son of one of her agents took advantage of the program.

The money loaned to buy Atlantic City houses must be paid back some day, when the house sells, but the qualifications for the aid are easier.

For example, to be considered a first-time buyer, its participants can’t have owned a home for two years, as opposed to three years in the county program.

And income limits are far more lenient.

Only households earning less than 80 percent of the median income for the area are eligible for the county program. For a family of four, that’s $55,350 a year; for a single person, $38,750.

The city program has a maximum income of $100,000, regardless of family size, Giralo said.

Ocean County offers first-time buyers (nonowners for three years) loans of as much as $10,000 that are forgiven after six years in the home, said Pegeen Ford, senior housing counselor for Ocean Community Economic Action Now, which administers the county program.

Participants must meet similar HUD income restrictions as in Atlantic County, she said. A couple could earn as much as about $55,000 a year and still be eligible.

There is also an asset restriction. Read full article in Press Of Atlantic City.