Three Point Mortgage is not a CHFA Participating Lender, and neither Chris Cartwright nor Three Point Mortgage is affiliated with, endorsed by, or representing the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority.
CHFA is a separate public entity. Its program names and materials belong to CHFA. This page explains CHFA programs independently so buyers can understand them. CHFA loans are originated through wholesale lenders that hold agreements with CHFA. Confirm all program terms directly with CHFA at chfainfo.com, the official source, before making a decision.
Most Colorado teachers and public school employees have never heard of this program, and that is a real gap, because it is one of the most generous down payment assistance structures CHFA offers. It is also not limited to teachers. If you drive a bus, run the front office, work in food service, clean the buildings, or counsel students, you qualify on identical terms.
I work with public school employees across the Front Range, and this program comes up less often than it should simply because awareness is low. Here is the complete picture, including the parts other write-ups skip.
Here is a complete, plain-language breakdown of how CHFA Schools to Home actually works.
What Schools to Home actually is
Schools to Home is a CHFA program created specifically to help Colorado public school employees buy homes in the communities where they work. It combines two things: a fixed-rate first mortgage, and a deferred second mortgage of up to 25% of that first mortgage amount, applied toward your down payment and closing costs.
The part that makes this program different from CHFA's standard down payment assistance is the repayment structure. Instead of monthly payments on that second loan, or even simple deferred interest, Schools to Home uses what CHFA calls a shared appreciation component. You don't repay the second mortgage in monthly installments. Instead, repayment comes due at the end of the loan term, or earlier if you sell, refinance, pay off the first mortgage, or the home stops being your primary residence. At that point you repay the second mortgage balance plus a share of whatever appreciation the home has gained. That share goes back into the Public School Permanent Fund, the state fund that finances this program, where it becomes the assistance for the next school employee rather than a return to a private investor. Worth noting what is not on that list: changing schools, retiring, or leaving education entirely does not trigger repayment.
Who qualifies as a "public school employee"
Eligibility is broader than most people assume. Schools to Home is available to any individual employed by a Colorado pre-K through 12 public school, school district, charter school, institute charter school, board of cooperative educational services, or innovation zone, classified as a full-time employee by their employer. This isn't limited to classroom teachers. Administrative staff, support staff, and other full-time public school employees can qualify as long as their employer is verified as an eligible public school entity.
If more than one borrower is on the loan, only one of you needs to be a full-time public school employee to qualify. That opens the door for a teacher and a spouse in a different field to use this program together.
CHFA maintains a list of eligible employers verified through the Colorado Department of Education. If you're checking your specific school or district against that list, make sure the "School Type" column shows "Public" for your employer before assuming eligibility.
The shared appreciation math, with a real example
This is the part that confuses people the most, so let's walk through the actual numbers using an example CHFA itself publishes.
CHFA divides your original second mortgage amount by your original purchase price. That percentage is your appreciation share.
So if your assistance represented one fifth of the purchase price, you owe one fifth of the appreciation on top of repaying the assistance itself. If the home has not appreciated, you repay only the original assistance amount.
CHFA publishes a worked example with real figures on its program page, and your lender can run the same math against a specific purchase price before you commit.
The key thing to understand: you're not repaying the second mortgage with interest the way a normal loan works. You're repaying the principal amount, plus a proportional share of appreciation, only if and when the home has actually gained value. If the home hasn't appreciated, you owe only the original second mortgage balance.
Eligibility and limits at a glance
These are the figures CHFA publishes for the program. They are the questions I get asked most, so here they are in one place.
| Requirement | What CHFA publishes |
|---|---|
| Assistance amount | Up to 25% of the first mortgage loan amount |
| Qualifying income limit | $178,920, statewide, regardless of household size or county |
| Purchase price limit | None for this program tier |
| Maximum total loan | Lower of $832,750 or the limit required by loan type |
| Minimum credit score | 620 mid score |
| First mortgage type | Fannie Mae conventional, 30-year fixed, purchase only |
| Occupancy | Owner-occupied primary residence |
| First-time buyer required? | No |
| Stackable with other CHFA assistance? | No |
| Required education | Understanding Your Financial Commitment course plus a CHFA-approved homebuyer education class |
The income figure is worth pausing on, because it is unusually generous and it is not household-size dependent the way most CHFA programs are. It is also based on qualifying income, meaning the income your lender actually uses to credit qualify you, not total household income from every earner in the home.
What you give up for a much larger amount of help at closing is a share of your future appreciation. That is the deal, plainly stated.
Whether that trade is worth it depends almost entirely on how long you stay and what the home does in value. Anyone presenting this as free money is either not paying attention or not being straight with you.
What happens in a foreclosure?
This question has been circulating in Colorado since a state policy outlet raised it in August, and it deserves a direct answer rather than avoidance.
CHFA has stated publicly that in the event of a foreclosure, the second mortgage is forgiven and not repaid to the Public School Permanent Fund, unless there are surplus funds from the sale.
For you as a borrower, that means the second mortgage does not follow you as a deficiency after a foreclosure. For the fund, it means the downside risk sits with the public money rather than with the educator. That is a legitimate policy debate and reasonable people land in different places on it. As a borrower, what matters is understanding that this is a real second lien with real repayment obligations under every normal outcome, and forgiveness in foreclosure is not a feature you should be planning around.
Common questions
Do I have to be a first-time homebuyer?
No. Schools To Home has no first-time buyer requirement. If you currently own or have previously owned a home, you may still qualify.
What is the income limit for Schools To Home?
$178,920 in qualifying income, and it is the same in every Colorado county regardless of household size. Qualifying income means the income your lender uses to approve you, not necessarily everything coming into the household.
Can bus drivers, paraprofessionals, and cafeteria staff qualify?
Yes. This is the most common and most costly misconception about the program. Eligibility is based on employment status, not job title. If you are a full-time employee of a Colorado preK-12 public school, school district, charter school, institute charter school, board of cooperative educational services (BOCES), or innovation zone, you qualify on identical terms to a classroom teacher.
That includes, without any distinction in the program guidelines:
Nearly every write-up of this program, including most lender pages, frames it as a teacher benefit. That framing is leaving a very large number of eligible people on the sidelines. If you work for a district in any capacity and you are full time, run the numbers before you assume this is not for you.
Is there a minimum time I need to have worked for the district?
CHFA does not impose a tenure requirement. You do need to be full-time when you apply and still full-time when the loan closes.
What if my spouse does not work for a school?
Only one borrower on the loan needs to meet the public school employment requirement.
Can I combine this with the CHFA grant or other CHFA down payment assistance?
No. Schools To Home cannot be stacked with CHFA's other down payment assistance programs. You choose one path, which is exactly why running the comparison first matters.
What can the assistance actually be used for?
Down payment, closing costs, prepaid expenses like your homeowners insurance and property tax escrows, or a principal reduction on the first mortgage. You can also take less than the maximum if that is what makes sense for your situation.
Is this a grant?
No, and this is the single most important thing to understand. It is a deferred second mortgage with a shared appreciation obligation. You repay the principal plus a share of appreciation at the end of the loan term, or earlier if you sell, refinance, pay off the first mortgage, or stop using the home as your primary residence.
When Schools To Home is the wrong choice
I am dual licensed, which means I can model both sides of this: what the financing does for you now and what the sale looks like later. That second half is where most of the analysis online stops, and it is where this program either works well or does not.
It tends to be the wrong choice when you have enough saved for a conventional down payment already, when you expect to sell within a few years in a strong appreciation market, or when you would qualify comfortably for a standard CHFA program with a lower first mortgage rate and a smaller, simpler second.
It tends to be the right choice when cash to close is the actual barrier keeping you out of a home, when you plan to stay long enough for the higher rate to be refinanced or outweighed, and when the alternative is continuing to rent in a district where you cannot afford to live near where you work.
The only way to know which side you fall on is to run both. I will do that comparison and tell you plainly if a different program beats this one, because sometimes it does.
The shared appreciation math is hard to judge in the abstract, and whether this program is a good deal depends entirely on your purchase price, how much assistance you take, and how long you stay.
I built a Shared Appreciation Calculator that runs CHFA's published formula on your figures. It shows what you repay, what appreciation you give up, what equity you keep, and the scenario where a flat or falling market leaves you owing more than the sale produces.
Required education for this program
Schools to Home requires two separate education components before closing: a course called "Understanding Your Financial Commitment," specifically built to walk through how the shared appreciation structure works and what your financial obligation actually looks like, and a standard CHFA-approved homebuyer education course, the same requirement that applies to other CHFA programs.
Both are worth completing early in your process rather than waiting until you're deep into a contract, since the shared appreciation structure genuinely benefits from understanding it clearly before you're under time pressure.
Schools to Home vs standard CHFA programs
| Factor | Schools to Home | Standard CHFA (SmartStep, Preferred) |
|---|---|---|
| Assistance amount | Up to 25% of the first mortgage loan | Lesser of $25,000 or 3% (grant), or lesser of $25,000 or 4% (second mortgage) |
| Repayment structure | Shared appreciation, deferred | Grant or low-interest second mortgage |
| Eligibility | Public pre-K-12 school employees only | General public, income and price limits apply |
| Required education | Financial commitment course + standard homebuyer ed | Standard homebuyer ed only |
| Best for | Employees with strong income but limited cash for a large down payment | Broader first-time buyer population |
The scale of assistance is the real differentiator. Standard CHFA down payment assistance is generally capped at 3% as a grant or 4% as a second mortgage. Schools To Home goes to 25% of the first mortgage loan, which for many school employees is the difference between renting and owning.
Work for a Colorado public school?
A 15-minute call confirms your eligibility and runs the real numbers on your specific purchase price.
Is Schools to Home the right choice for you?
This program makes the most sense for public school employees who have solid, stable income to support a mortgage payment but haven't had time or cash flow to save a large down payment, teachers early in their careers who want to buy in the community where they work, and anyone comfortable with the tradeoff of sharing a portion of future appreciation in exchange for a much larger upfront assistance amount.
It's worth thinking twice about if you expect to sell relatively quickly after a period of rapid appreciation, since the shared appreciation component means CHFA's share grows along with the home's value. For buyers planning to stay long-term, or buying in a market with modest, steady appreciation, the tradeoff tends to favor the buyer more clearly.
How to get started
The process begins the same way any CHFA loan does: confirming your employer is on the eligible list, checking your income against program limits, and working with a CHFA-approved lender to structure the first and second mortgage together. Since this program combines a specific eligibility requirement with a less common repayment structure, working with a lender who has actually walked a client through this program before matters more than it does with CHFA's more standard offerings.