Yes, there are first-time home buyer grants in Salt Lake City, though almost none of them are technically grants. The city and Salt Lake County each fund local down payment assistance, and the money usually arrives as a no-payment, no-interest second mortgage that is forgiven after you live in the home for a set number of years.

That distinction matters more than it sounds. Buyers who go looking for a check they never repay often give up before they find the help that actually exists. The Sharla Ellis Team walks Salt Lake County buyers through these local programs regularly, and the version that works is rarely the version people expect. Below we lay out which pot of money applies to which address, who qualifies, what the application sequence looks like, and how this local assistance stacks on top of the loan itself.

Are There First-Time Home Buyer Grants in Salt Lake City?

There is real local money, and it is separate from the statewide programs most buyers hear about first. Utah Housing Corporation runs state-level assistance tied to its loan products. What sits underneath that is city and county money, funded through federal housing dollars that flow to local governments and are then handed to a nonprofit to administer.

In this valley, that nonprofit is the Community Development Corporation of Utah, known locally as CDCU. It is a HUD-approved housing organization based at 501 East 1700 South in Salt Lake City, and it administers down payment assistance on behalf of Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, and Taylorsville. Its programs are branded as the Own In programs, which is why buyers searching for first-time home buyer grants in Salt Lake City often surface phrases like Own In Salt Lake City or Own In Salt Lake County.

So the honest answer is that the help is real, it is local, and it is administered in one place rather than at a city counter. What it is not is a no-strings grant. Understanding the structure before you apply saves a lot of frustration later.

How the CDCU Own In Programs Actually Work

What people call first-time home buyer grants in Salt Lake City, CDCU describes as a loan with no payment and no interest that is forgiven after a period of time. In practice that means a silent second mortgage recorded against the property. You make no monthly payment on it, no interest accrues, and if you stay in the home long enough the balance is forgiven in full. CDCU's published materials describe full forgiveness after a set period, generally in the range of five to ten years depending on the program and the size of the award.

The funds can be applied to your down payment, your closing costs, or both, which is the part buyers tend to underuse. Here is how the published award ceilings break down by jurisdiction.

• Salt Lake City. CDCU administers assistance of up to $39,000 for homes inside city limits, funded through the Salt Lake City Community Reinvestment Agency and reserved for first-time buyers under the income limit.
• Salt Lake County. Up to $20,000 for purchases in the rest of the county, meaning the areas outside Salt Lake City and Taylorsville.
• Taylorsville. Up to $20,000 through its own dedicated allocation, separate from the general county pot.
• Award size is not automatic. CDCU states plainly that the actual award is based on individual need and decided case by case, so the ceiling is a maximum rather than an amount you should plan around.
• Each program carries a maximum purchase price. That cap is updated as the market moves, so it should be confirmed at the time you are shopping rather than assumed from an older article.

One more structural note that trips people up. Because the assistance is a recorded second mortgage rather than a gift, it comes due if you sell, transfer title, stop using the home as your primary residence, or refinance for a reason other than lowering your rate. Our guide to whether you pay back down payment assistance in Utah walks through those triggers in more detail.

First-Time Home Buyer Grants in Salt Lake City vs. Salt Lake County

Eligibility for first-time home buyer grants in Salt Lake City depends on the address of the home you are buying, not on where you currently rent. That single rule changes the math for a lot of shoppers.

If the home sits inside Salt Lake City limits, you are looking at the city allocation. That covers the neighborhoods where entry-level inventory in the city still turns up, including Rose Park, Glendale, Poplar Grove, and Westpointe on the west side, along with pockets of Sugar House and Liberty Wells when the price fits. If the home sits in Midvale, Millcreek, Holladay, Riverton, Herriman, or Magna, you are working from the county allocation instead. Taylorsville has its own line, and CDCU has also noted limited funds available for West Valley City, Sandy, South Jordan, and West Jordan.

The practical consequence is worth saying out loud. A buyer priced out of a Sugar House condo may find that shifting the search two miles west, still inside city limits, keeps the larger city award in play, while shifting south into the county drops the ceiling. That is not a reason to buy in a neighborhood you do not want. It is a reason to know the boundary before you write an offer, because the assistance ceiling can be worth more than the price difference between two listings.

Who Qualifies for First-Time Home Buyer Grants in Salt Lake City?

CDCU publishes the eligibility guidelines for first-time home buyer grants in Salt Lake City, and they are more attainable than most renters assume. These are the requirements that decide whether you are in the running.

• First-time buyer as HUD defines it. That generally means you have not owned a home in the past three years, so a previous purchase well in the past does not automatically rule you out.
• Household income at or below 80 percent of area median income. The limit is set for the Salt Lake County area, varies by household size, and is updated periodically. Note that CDCU counts income from everyone who will live in the home, even household members who are not on the mortgage.
• You occupy the home as your principal residence. That obligation runs for the term of the deferred loan, which is what makes the forgiveness clock work.
• You contribute your own money. CDCU requires a minimum contribution of at least $1,000 toward the purchase, and applicants also need to meet debt ratio, residual income, cash reserve, and asset requirements.
• You complete homebuyer education and counseling. The course and the counseling session both need to come from a HUD-approved agency, and this is the requirement buyers most often leave until it is too late.
• You are already under contract. Applications are accepted once you have an accepted offer on a property, not before.

The income limit is where we see the most self-elimination. Eighty percent of area median income in Salt Lake County is a real number tied to household size, and plenty of working households with a nurse at Intermountain Health, a staffer at the University of Utah, or a two-earner service household land under it without realizing. It costs nothing to check the current figure against your actual household before you assume you earn too much.

How to Apply for First-Time Home Buyer Grants in Salt Lake City

The order of operations matters when you apply for first-time home buyer grants in Salt Lake City, because two of the requirements take real calendar time and one of them cannot start until you are under contract. This is the sequence that keeps buyers out of trouble.

• Step 1: get pre-approved for the first mortgage. Local assistance layers on top of a loan, so the loan comes first. Your pre-approval also tells you which price range keeps you inside the program's purchase price cap.
• Step 2: finish homebuyer education early. Take the HUD-approved course and complete the counseling session while you are still shopping. Buyers who wait until they are under contract are the ones who run out of runway.
• Step 3: shop with the boundary in mind. Confirm whether each address falls inside Salt Lake City, inside Taylorsville, or in the broader county, since that determines the ceiling you are working with.
• Step 4: get an accepted offer, then apply. CDCU accepts applications from buyers who are under contract, so the offer is the trigger. Applications go to CDCU directly, and its intake line is 801-994-7222.
• Step 5: build the timeline into your contract. CDCU describes its process as taking roughly 25 to 30 days to fund after a letter of commitment is issued, which is a detail your closing date needs to respect.

One thing to plan around rather than panic about: CDCU handles awards on a first come, first qualified basis, with no waiting lists and no funds held in reserve. Local allocations also refresh on funding cycles rather than running continuously, which is why availability can differ from one year to the next. In May 2026, for example, the Salt Lake City Community Reinvestment Agency approved roughly $6.4 million toward affordable homeownership in the city, including support for down payment assistance, matched savings, and homebuyer counseling, alongside projects such as CDCU's Gladhouse 3 cottage homes and the Brix on Tenth townhomes. The takeaway is simply that these programs move, so current status is worth confirming rather than assuming.

Stacking Local Assistance With Your Loan and Other Help

First-time home buyer grants in Salt Lake City are a layer, not a loan by themselves. You still need a first mortgage underneath the assistance, and the pairing is where the strategy lives. An FHA loan in Salt Lake City at 3.5 percent down is a common partner because the flexible guidelines match the buyer profile these programs serve. Low-down conventional financing and Utah Housing Corporation loans are also frequent pairings, and our overview of working with a down payment assistance lender in Salt Lake City explains why not every lender is set up to close these files.

Assistance also stacks with the everyday tools that reduce cash to close. Seller concessions, lender credits, and family gift funds for a down payment in Utah can each cover different pieces of the puzzle, and they combine. And if your search extends past the county line, true zero-down financing may be available through VA or USDA, which we map out on our zero down home loan hub for Salt Lake City. If you are earlier in the process than any of this, our first-time homebuyer roadmap for Salt Lake City covers the whole path from first conversation to keys.

What Buyers Get Wrong About First-Time Home Buyer Grants in Salt Lake City

Most of the buyers who tell us they already checked into first-time home buyer grants in Salt Lake City ruled themselves out on a misunderstanding. These are the ones we correct most often.

• "It is free money." It is forgivable money, which is close but not identical. Stay in the home through the forgiveness period and the obligation goes away. Sell or move out early and a balance comes due.
• "I earn too much to qualify." Maybe, but check first. The limit is tied to household size and updated periodically, and it is set to serve working households rather than only the lowest incomes.
• "I owned a home once, so I am out." The HUD definition generally looks back three years. A home you sold in your twenties usually does not disqualify you.
• "I should apply before I start shopping." The opposite is true for the application itself, which requires an accepted offer. What you should do early is the education and counseling.
• "Any lender can do this." These files carry extra documentation, a second lien, and a coordination burden between the nonprofit, the title company, and the lender. Experience with the process shows up in whether you close on time.

Frequently Asked Questions

This article is for educational purposes and does not constitute a commitment to lend. Loan approval is subject to underwriting, credit, income, asset, and property eligibility review. Down payment assistance programs are administered by the Community Development Corporation of Utah on behalf of Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, and Taylorsville. Award amounts, income limits, purchase price limits, forgiveness terms, eligibility rules, and funding availability are set by those programs and are subject to change without notice. Figures cited reflect program materials published by CDCU and Salt Lake City and should be confirmed with the administering agency at the time of application. Sharla Ellis, NMLS #209040, Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation, Company NMLS #2289. Equal Housing Opportunity.