Down payment assistance for buying a home in Tempe.

The City of Tempe's own First-Time Homebuyers Program

Tempe runs its own down payment and closing cost assistance program directly through the city, separate from the statewide and countywide options. It's built for income-eligible first-time buyers — generally defined as not having owned a home in the last three years — and is worth checking first if you already live or work in Tempe, since city-run programs sometimes prioritize local applicants or have funding sized for a smaller pool than the county-wide programs.

City programs like this one are typically funded through federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) or HOME funds, which means funding availability can vary year to year — I'll confirm current funding status and exact terms when we talk, rather than assume it's open the same way every year.

Home Plus and Home in Five still apply in Tempe

Because Tempe is entirely within Maricopa County, both major countywide programs are also on the table:

• Home in Five Advantage — usually the stronger dollar-for-dollar option for typical Tempe purchase prices, with a minimum 640 credit score.
• Home Plus — worth comparing if you're above Home in Five's loan-amount limits, or if you don't meet Tempe's city program's income requirements.

See the full Arizona down payment assistance comparison for how these two work in detail.

Which one to actually apply for

You typically can't stack more than one down payment assistance program on a single purchase, so this becomes a "pick one" decision, not a "combine all three" one. My approach: check your income against Tempe's city program requirements first since it may offer better terms for qualifying buyers, then compare against Home in Five and Home Plus using your actual purchase price and credit profile — not just whichever program has the biggest headline number.