State Incentives for Those in the Market for Illinois Homes
Speaking from a personal status and as a renter who has not taken the plunge to invest in a house yet, I was reading up on the Illinois state web pages and found some incentives for buying a house with my kind of income bracket. I found it to be pretty cool. Keep in mind that my income bracket is of the low kind, but not exactly excluding me totally from buying a house. So if I was looking to invest in some Illinois real estate, I would certainly take a look in this house buying incentive.
State Matching Funds
The incentive is called REACH and it’s used in conjunction with the Illinois Housing Development Authority and businesses who participate. So, if you are working with a company or employer who signs up with IHDA, you can get some extra cash in padding your house down payment expense.
So basically this is a program to help city workers find Illinois homes that are closer to work. It seems like a great cause because pollution, gas cost, commute time and all the things associated with burb living is getting pretty out of control compared to a decade or two ago.
If your employer enrolls with the REACH program and helps their employee put a down payment on their house, IHDA will match that payment up to $5,000 or $3,000, depending on the income Area Income Limits (example: 2-person income at 50% AIL in Cook county is around 30k).
Prerequisites
You’ll need to have the following to get the down payment match from the IHDA:
- Employer is enrolled in a EAH program and contributes some funds to a down payment
- It’s within the “live near work” EAH definition
- Legitimately works with REACH Illinois partner
- Employer contributes at least $1,000
You need money any legal way you can get it — at least I do. Ask your RE/MAX Illinois realtor and employer if you can participate.