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Fairfax unveils $7.5M Virginia REACH grant and expands down-payment tools
Summary
County homeownership staff described programs to expand single-family ownership, including a $7.5 million Virginia REACH grant, Spark interest-rate support through Virginia Housing, CDBG down-payment assistance up to $10,000, and plans for a homeownership market study to target assistance.
Callie Seltzer (Division Director for Real Estate and Community Development Finance) and Gentry Alexander (Division Director, Homeownership) presented homeownership initiatives to the Housing Committee.
Seltzer described county programs spanning ADUs, WDUs, CDBG down-payment assistance and partnerships with Virginia Housing. Alexander said Fairfax currently supports over 1,600 households in its ADU/WDU portfolio; in fiscal year 2024 the county added 93 households and in FY25 added 84.
Alexander outlined Spark, a Virginia Housing partnership that lowers interest rates by about one percentage point for eligible first-time buyers. "In FY '24 we invested $6,300,000 in mortgage capital to support 19 households," he said, and in FY '25 the county invested $16,900,000 to support 43 households through that initiative.
On new funding, Alexander said the county has entered a memorandum of understanding for Virginia REACH funds: "This is $7,500,000 in grant funds specifically to create homeownership opportunities for low and low-to-moderate income households," with priority uses including enhanced down-payment and closing-cost assistance and possible supports for manufactured housing residents.
On CDBG, staff said the county provides up to $10,000 in forgivable down-payment assistance for households at or below 80% of area median income (AMI) when paired with the ADU/WDU programs; staff described outreach through the county website, community events, housing counseling agencies, recommended lenders and realtors and said they will refine outreach as part of a homeownership market study planned in the next few months.
Supervisors asked for detail on program targeting, how households are identified for Spark and REACH, and how the county will calibrate assistance amounts. Staff said Virginia Housing-certified lenders front the Spark applications, that outreach is a joint effort with Virginia Housing and county partners, and that the homeownership study will provide further targeting and timeline details.
Seltzer and Alexander said the REACH funds are time-limited and the county plans to deploy them across down-payment and closing-cost assistance, pricing adjustments for workforce dwelling units, and potential small-scale homeownership development opportunities. They requested supervisors' offices to follow up for additional detail and committed to provide timelines once scope is finalized.
