$25K Down Payment Boost Could Be the Key To Stopping Investor Home Grabs

Buying a first home often comes with equal parts excitement and stress. With saving for a down payment, covering closing costs, and competing against investors, many would-be buyers may feel locked out.

The city of Detroit wants to help residents become homeowners. The boost is through a $25,000 down payment grant assistance.

“It’s definitely changing people’s lives,” Shane Ouimet, a Detroit-based mortgage broker who has helped dozens of buyers navigate the program, told Realtor.com®. “There are a lot of people who just don't have 5, 6, or 10 grand, whatever it might cost them to get into a house, but they come up with $1,000."

Prospective buyers are looking at a $279,000 median list price in August 2025 with over 10,000 active listings in the area, according to Realtor.com data.

Ouimet has been working in Detroit real estate for six years, and he’s become a go-to resource for first-time buyers trying to break into the city's competitive housing market. He first learned about the grant program through one of his clients.

“I am naturally pretty plugged into the Detroit market," he says. "So I said, if this is something that I can offer my clients, it's something I really want to know about."

How the program works

The city of Detroit Down Payment Assistance Program provides grants of up to $25,000 to help qualified residents purchase a home. The funds can be used toward a down payment, closing costs, interest-rate buydowns, and even certain repairs when paired with a renovation mortgage. (Note that the program isn’t always open—funding is capped each year and often runs out. But officials expect more money to be allocated soon, and Ouimet advises interested buyers to get their paperwork in order now.)

Eligibility is narrowly defined. Buyers must prove they’ve lived in Detroit for at least 12 months or that they lost a home to tax foreclosure in the city from 2010 to 2016.

Applicants must also complete a homebuyer education course, be pre-qualified by a lender, and have a signed purchase agreement in place. Income limits apply, set at no more than 300% of the federal poverty level, adjusted for family size. And the home must remain the buyer’s primary residence for three years after purchase, or the grant must be repaid.

Funding is distributed on a first-come, first-serve basis, and not every applicant receives the full $25,000. The grant amount depends on the purchase price and other qualifying factors. Once a complete file is submitted, the city says review typically takes two to three weeks.

'Rentvesting' vs. homeownership in Detroit

One of the program’s strengths, Ouimet noted, is its ability to encourage local ownership in a market that’s become a hotbed for outside investors.

“Detroit has a huge, huge rental investment market, for sure," says Ouimet. "There are actually so many rentals in Detroit that the occupancy rates here tend to be a little bit higher because they have so many options of who they can rent from and people willing to work with that.

"There's a lot of property flipping that happens in Detroit, too. So, this program is another way to kind of combat that, because we'd rather have more homeowners in the city than home renters."

Detroit’s affordability has also drawn interest from “rentvestors”—people who rent where they live but buy investment properties elsewhere. The city’s relatively low prices and strong rental demand have made it a target for investors looking for steady returns. But Ouimet believes the down payment assistance program can shift the balance back toward local homeowners.

"The easiest way for people to kind of take advantage of it, I'm going to say, is just to contact me and I kind of guide them through the process," says Ouimet.

For many Detroit residents, the $25,000 grant represents more than financial assistance—it’s the key to homeownership that once seemed out of reach. And for brokers like Ouimet, helping clients unlock that opportunity is the most rewarding part of the job.

"I think that it would be a huge hit in any city to help promote homeownership, if it were available," he says. "Besides Atlanta, I haven't seen any other cities adopt it, and I'm sure that's because of spending."