Need Help Buying a Home in Louisiana? CAFA Can Help

CAFA has been helping Louisiana families buy homes for more than 50 years, making homeownership more accessible. They’re not a bank looking to profit from your purchase. They’re a Louisiana organization built on the idea that homeownership strengthens communities and creates stability for families.

What sets CAFA apart is their track record. They’ve helped more than 15,500 families become homeowners. They started offering down payment assistance in 1995, so this isn’t some flash-in-the-pan program that could vanish next year. Real Louisiana families have been using these programs successfully for nearly three decades. CAFA operates as a self-supporting organization, which means they’ve created a sustainable system that keeps working for Louisiana homebuyers year after year.

What It Is

The First Home Program serves people who haven’t owned a home in the past three years. It provides direct financial assistance for your down payment and closing costs, and pairs that with a lower interest rate on your home loan. Think of it as CAFA’s way of reducing both your upfront costs and your monthly payment.

How Much Help You Get

You can get up to 5% of your loan amount to put toward your down payment or closing costs. CAFA structures this as a second loan at 0% interest, which means it doesn’t add to your monthly housing costs. The loan forgives gradually: after you’ve been in the home for five years, a small portion forgives each month. If you stay in the home for 10 years total, the entire second loan is forgiven and you owe nothing.

Who Can Apply

You need to meet the definition of a first-time homebuyer, someone who hasn’t owned a home in the past three years. CAFA makes two exceptions: veterans with military service and buyers purchasing in certain designated areas. You’re required to take a homebuyer education class before closing on the property. Income limits apply based on where you’re buying and your household size, so you’ll need to verify that your income falls within the acceptable range for your situation.

Important Details

• You’re required to use the home as your primary residence
• Minimum credit score requirement of 620
• Eligible properties include 1 to 4 unit homes
• Works with FHA, VA, USDA, and conventional loan programs

What Makes It Different

The Platinum program doesn’t require you to be a first-time homebuyer. You can qualify even if you currently own a home or have owned one recently. This opens up the program to people who are upgrading to a larger home, relocating to Louisiana from another state, or simply buying their next house without the three-year waiting period.

The Assistance You Receive

Just like the First Home Program, you receive up to 5% of your loan amount for down payment and closing costs. CAFA structures this as a second loan at 0% interest, so it doesn’t increase your monthly payment. The forgiveness timeline works identically: after you’ve lived in the home for five years, the loan begins forgiving month by month. Stay in the home for 10 years total, and the entire second loan is forgiven.

Who Qualifies

The Platinum program has fewer restrictions overall. You don’t need first-time buyer status at all. You still need to meet income limits and maintain a minimum credit score of 620. The homebuyer education requirement only applies if every person purchasing the home qualifies as a first-time buyer.

One important distinction about income limits: the Platinum program uses your qualifying income, not your total household income. This means only the income used to qualify for your mortgage counts toward the program’s income limits. This can make a significant difference if other members of your household earn income that isn’t being used for the mortgage. You can check the specific income limits for your area at https://thecafa.org/lenders/cafa-platinum.

Key Features

• Available throughout Louisiana (except Jefferson and Orleans Parishes)
• Compatible with government and conventional loan programs
• 30-year fixed rate mortgage on your primary loan
• You must move into the home within 60 days of closing

Take Jennifer, a nurse who recently accepted a position at a hospital in Baton Rouge. She’s relocating from Texas and found a $200,000 house within 15 minutes of the hospital. The problem? She just used most of her savings for the move itself, including security deposits, moving costs, and getting settled in a new city.

Jennifer makes decent money and can afford the monthly mortgage payment without any issue. But coming up with another $10,000 for down payment and closing costs means months of rebuilding her savings while paying rent in the meantime. Every month she waits is another month of rent money that builds zero equity.

CAFA’s 5% assistance gives her $10,000 immediately. She can use the money she has saved to cover the remaining closing costs and move straight into homeownership. Without this program, she’s looking at six to eight months of renting while she saves. She’d be paying around $1,400 a month for an apartment instead of building equity in a home she owns.

The assistance isn’t just helpful. It changes her entire timeline. Instead of spending another year as a renter in a city where she’s trying to build a life, she becomes a homeowner right away. She can settle into her neighborhood, establish herself at work without the distraction of apartment hunting, and start building equity from day one.

The forgiveness component is one of the smartest parts of these programs, even though it can sound confusing initially.

For Jennifer’s first five years in the home, that $10,000 assistance loan just sits there quietly. She’s not making any payments on it because it carries 0% interest. She’s simply living in her house, working her nursing shifts, making her regular mortgage payment every month.

After five years, something beneficial starts happening every month without her doing anything. A portion of that $10,000 gets forgiven automatically. She doesn’t need to remember to apply for it or submit documentation. It happens because she’s still living in the home as her primary residence.

This process continues month after month. After seven and a half years, she’d owe around $5,000. When she reaches 10 years of living in the home, the entire $10,000 is completely forgiven. She owes nothing back.

Ten years sounds like a significant commitment when you first hear it, but most people who buy homes stay considerably longer than that anyway. Look at Jennifer’s situation. She moves in, finally has room for a real home gym setup, figures out her route to work, makes friends with the neighbor who’s also a healthcare worker. Life happens, and suddenly a decade has passed.

In those 10 years, Jennifer will likely move from staff nurse to charge nurse or maybe into management. She’ll build substantial equity in her home as she pays down her mortgage and the property value increases over time. She’ll become an established part of her community and someone who truly feels at home in Baton Rouge.

From a financial perspective, staying in your home for 10 years almost always makes sense. You avoid having to pay realtor fees, repeat closing costs, moving expenses, and the hassle of packing up your entire life that comes with selling and buying again. You build real, tangible equity. And with CAFA assistance, you receive the added benefit of having that entire assistance loan forgiven.

The program is structured this way deliberately. It’s meant to support people who are committing to Louisiana communities for the long term, not people planning to buy and sell properties quickly. And honestly, if you’re at a point in your career where you’re ready to buy a home in a new city, you’re probably ready to stay and build a life there. That’s the whole point of homeownership: creating stability and belonging, not just owning a property temporarily.

If You Sell or Refinance Early

Both CAFA programs are designed with long-term homeownership in mind. If you sell your home or refinance your mortgage before completing the full 10-year period, you’ll be required to repay the portion of the assistance loan that hasn’t been forgiven yet. The calculation is proportional: sell after five years and you repay the full amount since forgiveness hasn’t started yet; sell after seven years and you only repay what remains unforgiven. The longer you’ve lived in the home, the less you’d owe back if you decide to leave.

Recapture Tax

There’s a federal recapture tax that could potentially apply if you sell your home within nine years. This tax only becomes relevant if you make a significant profit on the sale and your income has increased substantially since you bought the home. Most homeowners never end up paying this tax, but it’s worth knowing about upfront. You’ll receive detailed information about recapture tax rules when you apply for the program.

When you partner with DSLD Mortgage to complete the application for either CAFA program, we’ll verify that you meet all necessary requirements and help you figure out which program fits your situation better. There’s one important timing requirement: you must have a signed purchase agreement on a specific property before CAFA can reserve your assistance funds. The programs don’t allow pre-approval of assistance before you’ve identified and contracted on a home.

If you’re buying your first home or haven’t owned one in the past three years, the First Home Program is probably your best option. You’ll get down payment assistance and access to a competitive interest rate designed for first-time buyers.

If you currently own a home or have owned one more recently than three years ago, the Platinum program gives you access to the same valuable assistance without requiring first-time buyer status. This works well for people upgrading to a larger home or relocating to Louisiana.

Both programs address one of the biggest obstacles to homeownership: coming up with the cash needed at closing. The 10-year forgiveness structure means that if you stay in your home and make it your long-term residence, you won’t ever have to repay the assistance.

Ready to learn more? Contact DSLD Mortgage to find out if you qualify for CAFA assistance. We help Louisiana families navigate these programs and achieve homeownership every day.