Down Payment Assistance
Texas assistance programs, zero-down loans, and which Bell County towns qualify for which.
Figures verified 14 September 2026. These programs change several times a year. Everything below links to the official source so you can check it yourself, and I re-verify this page quarterly. Nothing here is legal, tax or lending advice — your lender confirms what you actually qualify for.
Start here: what is actually available in Bell County
Four separate things, and they stack in ways most buyers do not realise:
- State down payment assistance — two to five percent of the loan amount, from either of two Texas programs.
- A zero-down loan — VA if you have served, USDA in the rural parts of the county.
- A Mortgage Credit Certificate — a federal tax credit every year you keep the loan.
- The Texas disabled veteran exemption — which, if you qualify at 100 percent, removes your property tax bill entirely.
Texas down payment assistance
TSAHC — and the part people miss
The Texas State Affordable Housing Corporation runs two programs: Homes for Texas Heroes and Home Sweet Texas Home. Both provide a 30-year fixed mortgage plus assistance worth two, three, four or five percent of the loan amount.
Two things make these worth looking at first. The assistance can be structured as a true grant — no second lien, nothing to repay — on government loans with a 620 credit score. And neither program requires you to be a first-time buyer, which matters enormously if you have owned before and are moving up.
Homes for Texas Heroes covers teachers, teacher aides, school librarians, counsellors and school nurses; police and public security officers; firefighters and EMS personnel; veterans and active-duty military; corrections and juvenile corrections officers; and nursing and allied health faculty. In this county that is a great many households.
Bell County income limits: $153,180 for Home Sweet Texas, $173,604 for Homes for Texas Heroes. Purchase price limit $566,354.70 in non-targeted areas. Details at tsahc.org, or their homebuyer line on 877-508-4611.
TDHCA — The Texas Homebuyer Program
The state housing department runs My First Texas Home for first-time buyers and My Choice Texas Home for everyone else, both with two to five percent assistance as a deferred second lien at zero percent interest.
First-time here means you have not owned and occupied a primary residence in the previous three years — and that requirement is waived entirely for qualified veterans. Minimum 620 middle credit score. My First Texas Home is FHA, VA and USDA only.
Bell County falls under the balance-of-state limits: income $101,500 for one or two people, $116,725 for three or more; purchase price $566,354. Details at welcomehome.tdhca.texas.gov or 1-800-792-1119. (Note the address — TDHCA moved this to a new site, and a lot of older links now go nowhere.)
The Mortgage Credit Certificate
An MCC returns fifteen percent of the mortgage interest you pay each year as a federal tax credit — not a deduction, a credit — for as long as you keep the loan and live in the home. Both TSAHC and TDHCA issue them. The issuance fee is $400 and is waived for military buyers. It is first-time-buyer only, and again that is waived for veterans. Supply is limited, so it is worth asking early.
USDA: which Bell County towns qualify for zero down
A USDA Rural Development loan requires no down payment at all and caps household income at 115 percent of the area median. The catch is that the property has to be in an eligible area — and in Bell County the line runs right through the middle of the map.
Checked against USDA’s own eligibility mapping:
- Generally eligible: Salado, Troy, Holland, Nolanville, Morgan’s Point Resort, Rogers, Bartlett, Little River-Academy.
- Not eligible: Killeen, Temple, Harker Heights, Copperas Cove.
- Belton is split. North, south and west sides generally fall inside the eligible area; the east side toward the Temple corridor generally does not.
USDA boundaries follow census geography rather than city limits, so they can divide a single subdivision. Always check the specific address on the USDA property eligibility map, and check the separate income eligibility tool too. USDA makes the final determination when a complete application is submitted — no one can promise you a specific house qualifies.
This is genuinely one of the more useful things to know when you are choosing where to look. A zero-down loan in Troy or Nolanville is a different proposition from the same budget in Killeen.
VA loans, and the exemption nobody mentions
Bell County has the highest concentration of veterans of any county in Texas — more than twenty percent of the adult population — and it shows in the lending. In federal fiscal 2025 the Killeen metro ranked third in the nation for total VA loans, behind only San Antonio and Virginia Beach. Among Gen Z buyers it ranked second, with VA loans up nearly sixty percent year over year.
A VA loan requires no down payment and carries no monthly mortgage insurance. The funding fee for a purchase with less than five percent down is 2.15 percent on first use, and it can be financed into the loan. It is waived entirely for anyone receiving VA compensation for a service-connected disability, anyone eligible for compensation who takes retirement or active-duty pay instead, surviving spouses receiving DIC, service members with a proposed or memorandum rating before closing, and active-duty Purple Heart recipients. Current details at va.gov.
Then there is the one that changes the arithmetic completely. A veteran with a 100 percent VA disability rating — or a determination of individual unemployability receiving 100 percent compensation — pays no property tax at all on the total appraised value of their residence homestead. In a state with no income tax and correspondingly high property taxes, that is the largest single financial lever in this market. A surviving spouse keeps the exemption if they do not remarry and the property remains their primary residence. Details from the Texas Comptroller.
And these stack. Because a veteran is exempt from the first-time-buyer requirement on both TDHCA’s program and the Mortgage Credit Certificate, a veteran can combine a zero-down VA loan, state down payment assistance toward closing costs, and an annual tax credit — with no first-time restriction anywhere in the chain. That combination is worth a conversation with a lender who has actually done it.
FHA in Bell County
For 2026 the FHA loan limit for a one-unit property in Bell County is $541,287, which is exactly the national floor — Bell County is classified as a low-cost area. Two-unit is $693,050, three-unit $837,700, four-unit $1,041,125. These are set by HUD and change each January; the current figures are in HUD’s own lookup.
FHA is frequently the right answer for a first-time buyer with a thinner credit file, and it pairs with state down payment assistance.
Local programs — the honest picture
I would rather tell you what is not available than have you chase it.
- The City of Killeen’s Homebuyer Assistance Program is on hold and not accepting applications, with no reopening date announced. The city still offers a free homebuyer education course and HUD-certified counselling through BCL of Texas.
- The City of Temple does not run its own down payment assistance. Its Housing Resource Center (254-298-5999) refers buyers to the state programs and to local nonprofits. Temple’s HARP program is owner-occupied repair, not homebuyer help.
- The City of Belton’s HOME program is home reconstruction for existing low-income owner-occupants — not down payment assistance.
- Bell County itself does not appear to run a homebuyer program.
The state programs are where the money actually is in this county.
Common questions
Can I combine down payment assistance with a VA or USDA loan?
Yes. Both Texas programs work with government loans, including VA and USDA. On a zero-down loan the assistance goes toward closing costs and prepaid items rather than a down payment, which is often exactly where a buyer runs short.
Do I have to pay the down payment assistance back?
It depends which option you take. TSAHC offers a true grant on government loans with nothing to repay and no second lien, and also a three-year forgivable second lien at zero percent. TDHCA’s assistance is a deferred second lien at zero percent. Your lender will tell you which structure applies to your file.
What credit score do these programs need?
Generally a 620 middle score for the standard options, and 640 for conventional financing through TSAHC. The standalone Mortgage Credit Certificate has no minimum score. If you are under those numbers today it is often fixable within a few months.
I am a veteran. Does the first-time buyer rule apply to me?
No. Qualified veterans are exempt from the first-time-buyer requirement on TDHCA’s program and on the Mortgage Credit Certificate, and TSAHC’s programs have no first-time requirement for anyone. That is what makes the stack work.
How do I find out which of these I qualify for?
Talk to a lender who works with these programs regularly, because they are the ones who certify eligibility and reserve the funds. I am happy to point you at lenders in Bell County who do this routinely, and to sit in on the conversation if that helps.
Program terms, income limits, purchase price limits and loan limits change regularly, and funding for assistance programs is limited and can be exhausted. Eligibility is determined by the program administrator and your lender, not by this website. This page is general information, not lending, tax or legal advice.