How is the CHFA Schools to Home shared appreciation calculated?

Your share equals the original down payment assistance second mortgage divided by the original purchase price. That percentage is applied to the gain between your purchase price and your sale price. On a $400,000 purchase with an $80,000 second, the share is 20%, so a $91,950 gain owes $18,390 of appreciation on top of repaying the $80,000.

Does CHFA Schools to Home require mortgage insurance?

No. The first mortgage is 80% of the purchase price and the state second covers the down payment, so there is no mortgage insurance on the loan.

When do you repay CHFA Schools to Home?

Nothing is due monthly. The second mortgage and the shared appreciation are repaid when you sell the home, refinance, pay off the first mortgage, stop using the home as your primary residence, or reach the end of the loan term.

What happens if the home loses value?

A home that has not gained owes no appreciation share, but the down payment assistance second is still repaid in full. CHFA shows this case in their own borrower materials, including an example that ends in negative equity.

Who qualifies for CHFA Schools to Home?

Full-time employees of a Colorado preK-12 public school, school district, charter school, institute charter school, board of cooperative educational services, or innovation zone. A 620 minimum mid credit score, a CHFA income limit, and two education courses apply.

CHFA Schools to Home

What the down payment help really costs you

Colorado pays your down payment and you skip mortgage insurance entirely — in exchange for a fixed slice of every dollar your home gains. Here is the trade, in your numbers.

Your situation

Change anything — everything below updates as you type.

Purchase price

Assistance taken

Schools to Home rate

3% down rate

3% down PMI / yr

Property tax / yr

Insurance / yr

HOA / mo

Years in the home

Home gains / yr

After giving back the assistance and its share of the gain, Schools to Home still leaves you ahead by

$31,652

Selling in year 7 at 3.0% a year. That counts the $12,000 you keep at closing, $55,014 of lower payments and no mortgage insurance, against $18,390 of appreciation owed on top of the $80,000 you borrowed.

What makes up that number

Cash you keep at closing: +$12,000
Lower payments over 7 years, incl. no PMI: +$55,014
Equity given up at sale: -$35,361
Schools to Home ahead by: +$31,652

Your payment starts about $662 a month lower, and you bring $12,000 less to the closing table. Set against that, you hand back $18,390 of appreciation on top of the $80,000 you borrowed, which is why the equity line runs the other way.

Priced at 6.625% on Schools to Home and 6.875% on the 3% down loan — a 97% loan-to-value loan prices above an 80% one — with PMI at 0.50% a year. These are illustrative, not quotes. Change any of them above and every figure on this page moves with it.

Schools to Home Ahead

80% first mortgage, no mortgage insurance, state second covers the rest.

Cash at closing: $0
Monthly payment: $2,399
Mortgage insurance: none
Your appreciation share: 20.0% of the gain
Equity when you sell: $103,629

Conventional 3% down Behind

You fund the down payment and carry PMI until you reach 80%.

Cash at closing: $12,000
Monthly payment: $3,061
PMI, drops off: $162/mo, gone year 12
Your appreciation share: none — you keep it all
Equity when you sell: $138,990

Where it flips

How far ahead Schools to Home leaves you, by how fast the home gains and how long you stay. Green means it wins.

Read across a row and the pattern holds: the assistance is worth most when the home gains slowly, and least when it climbs fast. At 3% a year it stays ahead for the whole thirty. At 6% a year it stops winning around year 15, and by year 30 the share has cost more than the help was worth.

Schools to Home ahead 3% down ahead Everything else held at your inputs above.

The 0% and −2% rows match on purpose. A home that has not gained owes no share either way, so below zero the advantage stops moving — the assistance costs you nothing but the repayment.

How the share is figured

CHFA sets your share once, at closing, and it never changes.

You buy at $400,000. The first mortgage is 80% of that, $320,000 — the reason there is no mortgage insurance.
The state second is $80,000. That is 25.0% of the first mortgage, and 20.0% of the purchase price.
Your share is that second divided by the price: 20.0%. It is locked at closing and never moves.
Sell in year 7 for $491,950 and the gain is $91,950.
You owe the $80,000 back, plus 20.0% of that gain — $18,390. Total $98,390.
Nothing is due until you sell, refinance, pay off the first, or stop living there.

What this assumes

The first mortgage is 80% of the purchase price, which is what keeps mortgage insurance off the loan. The state second covers up to 25% of that first mortgage — 20% of the price. Take less and you bring the difference in cash.
Your appreciation share is the original second divided by the original purchase price, applied to the gain between your purchase price and your sale price. A home that loses value owes no share, but the second is still repaid in full.
Both loans are 30-year fixed and amortized properly, so the payoff figures sit slightly below CHFA's own illustration, which uses the opening balance.
PMI on the 3%-down loan is removed once the balance amortizes down to 80% of the purchase price. That is the automatic rule. If the home climbs quickly you could cancel earlier by paying for an appraisal, which would narrow the gap — so this assumption leans slightly in Schools to Home’s favor.
Taxes, insurance and HOA are identical in both columns, so they change the payment but never the comparison.
Rates and mortgage insurance are assumptions, not quotes: 6.625% on the Schools to Home first mortgage, 6.875% on the conventional 3% down loan, and PMI at 0.50% of the loan balance per year. A 97% loan-to-value loan carries pricing adjustments an 80% loan does not, which is why the two rates differ. Your own quote depends on credit score, loan amount, property and the day you lock.
Cash you keep at closing and each month of payment difference are counted at face value — no investment return, no tax effects.
Selling costs are left out. They are the same either way.

Estimate only, not a commitment to lend or a quote. Rates, mortgage insurance and program terms change. CHFA sets Schools to Home terms — including income limits, a 620 minimum credit score, full-time employment at an eligible Colorado public school employer, and two required education courses — and verifies eligibility at application. Speak Straight Mortgage · Company NMLS 2426226 · Equal Housing Opportunity.