Down payment assistance in Jacksonville, 2026

The down payment is the wall most buyers hit. The good news for 2026: there are programs that cover part of it, and a lot of buyers who qualify have no idea they do.

Here are two North Florida Mortgage is offering right now.

FHA down payment assistance

For buyers with a credit score of 640 or higher, the lender contributes up to 3.5% toward your down payment. That's the full FHA minimum down payment covered (FHA's 3.5% floor is set in HUD Handbook 4000.1).

There are two ways to take it:

• Forgiven. The assistance is a gift you don't repay.
• Second mortgage. You take the help as a small second loan. The trade: your first mortgage rate runs about a full percentage point lower than the forgiven option.

For a lot of buyers the second-mortgage route is the better math, because the lower rate on the larger first loan can outweigh the small second payment. Which one wins depends on your numbers, so it's worth running both.

Conventional down payment assistance

For buyers with higher credit scores, there's a conventional option that contributes up to 3% toward the down payment. That portion is forgiven as long as you make six on-time payments on your first mortgage.

State and county programs still apply

These stack with the landscape of Florida programs. Florida Hometown Heroes, the state public-service DPA program, continues into 2026 with a 5%-of-loan-amount cap and income limits set per county. Duval, Clay, and St. Johns each run county-level assistance too. Income caps and fund availability change, so verify the current figures for your county and household size when you apply.

Who should look at this

• First-time buyers who've been waiting to save a full down payment.
• Repeat buyers who think assistance is only for first-timers (the FHA option above isn't first-time-only).
• Anyone who's been quoted "20% down" and assumed that was the rule. It isn't.

The exact program, the credit thresholds, and the math on forgiven-vs-second are all things worth a short call. Jason will tell you what you actually qualify for: 904-389-4635.