Eligible teachers and public safety workers could buy homes without down payments

The Federal Housing Administration could insure eligible home loans without requiring a down payment. Loans could cover buying or repairing a single-family home, including a condo, or buying an eligible manufactured home. Buyers must use the property as their main home and meet the program's eligibility and lending rules. Manufactured homes must be permanently attached to buyer-owned land and legally treated as real estate; the loan may also cover buying that land. Authority to make new insurance commitments would expire five years after the agency first makes this insurance available.

Applicants would have to meet job, counseling, and lending requirements. Covered full-time workers include government officers with arrest or offender-supervision duties; government firefighters, paramedics, and emergency medical technicians; and pre-K–12 teachers at state-accredited public or private schools. Applicants must complete approved housing counseling and have worked in covered jobs for at least four of the five years before applying, or have been released because of a job-related disability. They must still hold covered employment, be in good standing, not be on probation or under investigation for conduct warranting firing, and intend to continue covered work for at least one year after closing. They must never have borrowed through this program and must meet the agency's lending and financial-risk rules. Applicants must meet eligibility requirements when they sign the mortgage.

The Federal Housing Administration would collect an upfront insurance charge and prohibit monthly insurance charges for these loans. These rules would apply to mortgages insured through this program. The agency could raise or lower the upfront percentage based on loan performance and market conditions.