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Committee greenlights $15,000 mortgage-assistance pilot; MSHA to design either rate-buydown or down-payment program

Joint Committee on Housing and Economic Development · March 3, 2026

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Summary

Committee authorized a pilot program to provide up to $15,000 per home to improve mortgage access; debate centered on whether funds should buy down interest rates or provide down-payment assistance. Maine State Housing Authority said it can run a uniform program either way but cannot efficiently run two mixed program streams; committee adopted language giving MSHA design flexibility.

The committee considered a proposal to authorize up to $15,000 per home in a pilot homeownership assistance program administered by Maine State Housing Authority (MSHA) intended to reduce mortgage costs either by buying down interest rates or by providing down-payment assistance to help would-be buyers qualify.

Representative Julia and others noted that down payment barriers are often the first hurdle while buying down interest rates can yield larger lifetime savings. Eric Jorgensen of MSHA described existing MSHA first-time homebuyer programs that provide both down-payment grants and below-market-rate financing and said MSHA could implement a program as down-payment assistance or as a mortgage-rate buy-down, but that administering two separate program streams simultaneously would be operationally difficult. "We could provide this assistance as a grant for down payment assistance, or we could run it through our mortgage purchase program and bring down the interest rate… we couldn't do both," Jorgensen said.

Committee members asked for flexibility; the sponsor and MSHA agreed to language permitting MSHA to design the program consistent with operational capacity. The committee voted to report the bill as amended to allow MSHA to choose the method best suited to program goals and scale.