Colorado Teachers Can Now Get Up to 25% Down Payment Help to Buy a Home

ByMike Rush
Colorado Schools to Home program offers up to 25% down payment assistance for public school employees

Since July 1, 2026, Colorado public school employees have had a new path into homeownership: CHFA’s Schools to Home program, which pairs a regular first mortgage with a deferred second mortgage covering up to 25% of the loan amount for down payment and closing costs. As of mid-September, 85 people had already used it — and CHFA’s initial funding is built to support roughly 125 home purchases total.

How the assistance actually works

The structure is a shared-appreciation loan, not a grant. You get a fixed-rate first mortgage plus a second mortgage from CHFA worth up to 25% of the first loan amount, with no monthly payment on that second loan. Repayment is deferred until you sell, refinance, pay off the first mortgage, or stop using the home as your primary residence. When that happens, you repay the assistance amount plus a share of the home’s appreciation — capped so it can never exceed your assistance percentage. If the home’s value is flat or down, you only owe back the original assistance, nothing more.

CHFA’s own worked example: a $437,500 purchase with $87,500 in assistance (25% of a $350,000 first mortgage), later sold for $480,000. That’s $42,500 in appreciation, producing a $10,625 shared-appreciation payment in CHFA’s illustration — a total payoff of $98,125, leaving $31,875 in built-up equity for the seller. CHFA notes the actual shared-appreciation percentage is set per loan and will always be at or below the down-payment-assistance percentage you received, so run your own numbers with a lender rather than assuming this exact split.

Schools to Home example: $437,500 purchase, $87,500 assistance, sold for $480,000, $98,125 total payoff, $31,875 equity to seller

Who qualifies

Eligibility runs through your employer, not a narrow definition of “teacher.” Any full-time employee of a Colorado public preK-12 school, school district, charter school, institute charter school, BOCES, or innovation zone qualifies — local coverage of the program has pointed to administrators and bus drivers alongside teachers as examples of who’s used it. You also need to not currently own a home, complete CHFA’s “Understanding Your Financial Commitment” course and quiz, and finish a CHFA-approved homebuyer education class. Credit and income requirements apply through CHFA’s participating lenders, the same as any CHFA loan.

Why Colorado built this

The program exists because of a gap that’s gotten hard to ignore: Colorado’s median home price was around $550,000 in July, while the average teacher in a district-run school earned about $78,000 that year (roughly $60,000 in charter schools). The Colorado Department of Treasury seeded the program with a $10 million investment from the state’s Public School Permanent Fund, with more planned, and it grew out of a 2025 law, Senate Bill 25-167, aimed squarely at helping schools recruit and retain staff who can actually afford to live near where they work. CHFA puts the average assistance amount per home at about $80,000.

Schools to Home by the numbers: launched July 1 2026, 85 purchases by mid-September, about 125 projected from initial funding, up to 25% assistance, about $80,000 average per home

Worth saying plainly: funding is limited, not unlimited capacity for every eligible employee — CHFA’s own estimate is around 125 total purchases from this initial round. If you’re eligible and interested, that argues for looking into it sooner rather than later, not waiting.

What this means for you

If you or someone in your household works full-time for a Colorado public school and doesn’t currently own a home, this is worth a real look before assuming a down payment is out of reach — 25% assistance on a median-priced home is a meaningfully different conversation than saving it yourself. The shared-appreciation piece isn’t free money, so I’d encourage you to run the numbers with a CHFA participating lender against your specific situation, especially if you expect to sell within a few years in a market where prices have room to keep climbing.

On the rate side: Freddie Mac’s October 15 survey held the 30-year fixed at 7.40%, unchanged from the week before — a quiet week after a stretch of bigger moves, and one less variable to plan around if you’re weighing a purchase timeline right now.

Thinking about buying or selling? Let’s talk through what it actually means for your plan.

This is general market information, not financial, investment, or lending advice, and rates change daily — talk to your lender for a quote specific to you.

Sources

  • CHFA, “Schools to Home Program,” chfainfo.com, accessed October 15, 2026
  • Colorado General Assembly, Senate Bill 25-167 (2025 Regular Session), leg.colorado.gov
  • Chalkbeat Colorado, “Colorado educators can get homebuying help through new state program,” September 14, 2026
  • Denver7, “New Colorado program offers public school employees help with home purchases,” September 29, 2026
  • Freddie Mac, Primary Mortgage Market Survey, October 15, 2026 (freddiemac.com/pmms)

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