Skip to main content

Down Payment Assistance Available From Suffolk County

Mon, 07/31/2023 - 13:19
County Executive Steve Bellone
Courtesy Suffolk County Executive's Office

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone announced Thursday that this year’s Down Payment Assistance Program is now open for applications. The program allows first-time homebuyers $30,000 to purchase a single family home with the agreement that the buyer will live there for at least 10 years.

Mr. Bellone explained during a press conference that in prior years, $14,000 was given to each homeowner to live in a home for five years. However, he said, “This year we are upping it to $30,000 per homeowner” because it is “critical to allow more people to take part in this incredible opportunity to become a homeowner.”

The Down Payment Assistance Program will be accepting applications through March 31, 2024. Before submitting an application, all prospective applicants are required to attend housing counseling and receive a mortgage counseling certificate. For U.S. military veterans with a DD-214 (certificate of release or discharge from active duty), the first-time buyer qualification will be waived. Buyers are accountable for all closing costs and the balance of the down payment.

To be eligible for the program, applicants must be purchasing their first home; have low to moderate income not beyond 80 percent of the area median income; have at least $3,000 saved when applying; be able to access a mortgage from a qualified lender, and have a minimum income of $40,000. In addition, the maximum value of an existing home cannot exceed $532,000 or $555,000 for a newly constructed home, which means homeowners will likely find themselves west of the Shinnecock Canal. Single-family homes, condominiums, and cooperative apartments are eligible. 

The website to apply is scdownpayment.com.

Villages

First East Hampton, Then the World

In the summer of 2011, Alex Esposito and James Mirras addressed a specific need with Hamptons Free Ride, an electric shuttle service that ran in a fixed loop through East Hampton and from parking lots in town to Main Beach. Since then, a “hometown side project” has developed into Circuit, an all-electric, on-demand “micro-transit” solution in more than 40 cities and towns.

Jul 17, 2025

WordHampton Moves Downtown

The public relations firm WordHampton has long had its finger on the pulse of what’s going on in the East End business community. That comes with the job. And now, with a new office overlooking Park Place in East Hampton Village, it is part of that pulse in a way that was not quite as tangible from its former headquarters in Springs.

Jul 17, 2025

Sag Harbor Rejects Proposed Tree Settlement

The case of Augusta Ramsay Folks, an 81-year-old accused of cutting down two trees on Meadowlark Lane in Sag Harbor in June of last year — in violation of the village’s new tree-protection law — was back in court on July 8, when a settlement proposed by Ms. Folks was rejected by the village and then withdrawn by her attorney.

Jul 17, 2025

 

Your support for The East Hampton Star helps us deliver the news, arts, and community information you need. Whether you are an online subscriber, get the paper in the mail, delivered to your door in Manhattan, or are just passing through, every reader counts. We value you for being part of The Star family.

Your subscription to The Star does more than get you great arts, news, sports, and outdoors stories. It makes everything we do possible.