Misty Brown has lived in a house in Derby for just over three months and it's everything she’s ever wanted. “If I had known how much of a difference it would be in my life to own a home versus renting. I would have tried to get mentally there way, way, way before I did.”

Brown couldn’t have gotten this house alone, she got help from the Kansas Housing Resources Corporation and its first-time home buyers program.

Brow says “it would have been a lot harder for me to buy it would have been a much longer process but with but the grant made it everything like actually within my reach to do it.”

The program helps Kansans who make 80% or less of their county's median income make a down payment on a home. In Sedgwick County, that would be a max of $47,500 for one person to receive the aid.

Christine Reimler with the KHRC says it "offers 15 to 20% of the purchase price, for of course down payment and closing costs. This helps families that you know, they're hard-working, have good credit that can get a first mortgage, but they don't have their down payment.”

The program recently expanded its eligibility rules. Now people in the program now can have a max debt-to-income ratio of 45%, up from 41%. They must pay a minimum of 15% of their principal, interest, taxes, and insurance down from 20%, and be able to pay 1% of the home’s sale price in a down payment to the KHRC, down from 2%.

Reimler says “we want to be a catalyst to help people get into their first home and to, you know, build that generational wealth and have built the family memories and the place to call home."

The KHRC helped 37 families buy homes in 2021 through the program. Brown encourages anyone considering their first home to see if they qualify.

"Why not use it, that's what it's there for."

The KHRC’s program covers the entire state outside of Wichita, Topeka, Lawrence, Kansas City, and Johnson counties since those have their own version of it.

For more information on it, click here.