Thursday, March 28, 2024

The ABCs of Homebuying

March 16, 2021 by  
Filed under Highlights

The ABCs of Homebuying

BY KATIE COLEMAN, NEVADA RURAL HOUSING AUTHORITY

If you have any experience in the housing market or homebuying process, you’ll know that we LOVE acronyms. APR, FHA, DTI, PMI, LTV — looks like that alphabet soup we were served as kids, right? We’ll leave those definitions to you and your Googling superpowers, but today we want to introduce a new one that has some purchase power: MCC.

Home At Last is a program of the Nevada Rural Housing Authority serving all 15 of Nevada’s rural counties PLUS the rural areas of Clark County. Home At Last offers affordable homeownership tools that have helped thousands of Nevada families into homes of their very own. How? Enter: the Mortgage Credit Certificate, or the MCC — it’s just one of the superpowers we can offer future homeowners.

The Mortgage Credit Certificate (MCC) program ensures homeownership remains affordable by providing qualified homebuyers with an annual federal income tax credit equal to 30% of the mortgage interest paid — every year for the life of the loan (with an annual maximum savings of $2,000). Add those average savings up over a 30-year loan and, whoa — that’s a chunk of change. If you qualify for the MCC, that tax savings can also be considered additional qualifying income — based on the average annual savings of $2,000, that’s a $166.67 boost to a monthly income, which helps lower DTI (debt to income ratios) and provides additional buying power.

The MCC can be used as a standalone tool or paired with Home At Last Down Payment Assistance. The MCC is for first-time homebuyers (but please note that our down payment assistance does NOT require you to be a first-time homebuyer!), which means you haven’t owned a home in the past three years. However, we do waive the first-time homebuyer requirement for qualified veterans who will live in the home as their primary residence. Income and purchase price limits also apply, and borrowers must also meet the other underwriting requirements of obtaining a mortgage.

Don’t miss out because this amazing program is only available at the time the home is purchased! Visit HomeAtLastEducation.org and sign up for our free (and fun, if we do say so ourselves), Homebuyer 101 course, part of HAL University (HAL is Home At Last for short!). We’ll give you the full scoop on the MCC, DPA and the rest of that alphabet soup, and even hook you up with one of our rockin’ real estate and lender partners who know our program inside and out.

Disclaimer: A Home At Last approved lender will determine eligibility for the MCC program. Not all applicants will qualify. Example savings figures are estimates and for illustrative purposes only. NRHA does not offer this information to solicit a mortgage application or as tax advice. All MCC holders or applicants should consult their own tax advisor or the Internal Revenue Service for guidance regarding the calculation of the tax credit benefit.

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