Santa Clara Below Market Purchase Basic Eligibility

Basic Eligibility Criteria

To qualify to purchase a BMP home in the City of Santa Clara you must meet basic criteria noted below:

If you are interested in purchasing a BMP home your household must be meet certain income limits. Applicants may not earn greater than 120% of the Area Median Income based on your household size. Each BMP home that is offered for sale may target a specific AMI category. The income levels are established each year by the California Department of Housing. Below is a chart that reflects the current maximum income levels for the BMP Program.

Maximum Allowable Household Income Levels for 2024/2025

Meet Income Qualifications

Be a First-time Homebuyer

In order to qualify to purchase a BMP home, an applicant must be a first-time homebuyer as defined as an individual, or a couple (including an individual and their spouse), who has not owned a home in the three years preceding submitting an application to purchase a BMP home. There are a few exceptions that may apply. To learn more refer the the BMP Program Guidelines for additional detail.

Be Purchase Ready

The BMP Program requires that applicant households are purchase ready at the time of application. This helps to ensure that the home purchase fits within the household budget and that the applicant household is able to qualify for mortgage financing from a conventional lender. Purchase ready includes but is not limited to the ability to qualify for a 30-year, fixed interest mortgage loan and showing the ability to provide at least 3% of the purchase price as a down payment. In order to apply for a BMP home, you must get a pre-qualification letter from a preferred lender demonstrating that you would qualify for the purchase price of the BMP home you are interested in. The City's Preferred Lender list can be found here

Meet the Required Household Size for the Unit

To ensure that the City's limited BMP homes are used efficiently, a household must be of a size equal to the number of bedrooms in the BMP unit. Pursuant to fair housing laws, the maximum occupancy allowed in a BMP unit is two people per bedroom, plus one additional person who can reside outside of the bedroom. Thus, to be eligible to purchase a three-bedroom unit, a household must contain at least three members, but no more than seven members. The table below shows the minimum and maximum household size based on the number of bedrooms. Reasonable accommodations to these standards may be requested in the case of medical or disability needs and will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Take a Home Buyer Education Class

The BMP Program requires that the primary applicant and any co-applicants that will go on title to the home attend a HUD-certified homebuyer education class as part of the application process. This requirements is to ensure that the applicant has working knowledge of the home buying process, mortgage lending and the costs that go into obtaining a mortgage loan. Applicants can find a list of HUD-Approved Counseling Agencies HERE.