City of Wilmington Home Buyer Assistance Program (HAP) is Discontinued: Your 2026 DPA Alternatives

If you landed on this page after seeing the City of Wilmington Home Buyer Assistance Program (HAP) referenced in an older article, on a real estate forum, or in advice from a family member, here is what you need to know: HAP was a deferred-payment, forgivable second-mortgage program administered by the City of Wilmington Department of Real Estate and Housing during the federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) funding era. It paid up to $10,000 toward Wilmington home purchases in the 19801, 19802, and 19805 ZIP codes, restricted to vacant properties, and was forgiven after five years of owner occupancy. The program is no longer accepting applications. The funding cycle ended years ago and has not been refunded. I am John Thomas of the John Thomas Team, NMLS #38783, and I get this question almost weekly from Wilmington buyers who think they have found a $10,000 grant only to learn the program is closed. The good news: Wilmington buyers in 2026 actually have access to more down payment assistance than HAP ever offered. This page walks you through what HAP was, why it is gone, and which current programs replace it in 2026.

What Was the City of Wilmington HAP Program?

The City of Wilmington Home Buyer Assistance Program (HAP) was a deferred-payment, forgivable second-mortgage program that provided up to $10,000 in down payment and closing cost assistance to qualified buyers purchasing homes in the City of Wilmington, Delaware. It was administered by the City of Wilmington Department of Real Estate and Housing and primarily funded by federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) dollars from the late-2000s federal housing recovery initiative.

HAP had a narrow eligibility window that made it useful only for a specific buyer profile. Properties had to be located within the 19801, 19802, or 19805 ZIP codes, had to have been vacant for at least 90 days at the time of contract, and had to be purchased at 1 percent below appraised value. Applicants did not have to be first-time home buyers, but they did have to complete 8 hours of homebuyer counseling and use a fixed-rate first mortgage. The $10,000 was structured as a no-payment, no-interest second mortgage that was fully forgiven after 5 years of owner occupancy.

For buyers who fit that profile during the program’s active years, HAP was a real benefit. For most Wilmington buyers, however, the vacancy requirement and the narrow ZIP code restriction limited usefulness – and the program has been closed for several years.

Why Is Wilmington HAP No Longer Available?

HAP was tied to a specific federal funding cycle – the Neighborhood Stabilization Program created in response to the 2008-2010 foreclosure crisis. When NSP funds were exhausted at the local level and not replenished by Congress in subsequent budget cycles, programs like HAP that depended on those dollars ran out of capacity and stopped accepting new applications. The City of Wilmington Department of Real Estate and Housing now directs Wilmington buyers to the City’s First Start Homebuyer Program, which serves the same general purpose with a larger grant amount and a wider eligibility footprint.

This is a common pattern with down payment assistance programs. Federal stimulus eras create temporary programs that draw down quickly. State-level housing finance agencies like DSHA tend to be more durable because they have permanent funding mechanisms – bond issuance, mortgage revenue bond programs, and continuing federal allocations like the HOME Investment Partnerships Program. That is why the current 2026 Wilmington DPA landscape is dominated by city-level (First Start), state-level (DSHA), and lender-proprietary (PRMI Welcome Home) programs rather than time-limited federal stimulus programs.

Current 2026 Wilmington DPA Alternatives at a Glance

Here is how the current 2026 Wilmington-area down payment assistance programs compare. Many Wilmington buyers may qualify for at least one of these, and several may qualify for combinations that stack on top of each other for materially more help than HAP ever offered. Current as of May 2026.

Program	Amount	Eligibility Footprint	First-Time Buyer Required?	Best For
City of Wilmington First Start	Up to $15,000 (or 6% of purchase price)	City of Wilmington limits only	Yes (no ownership in prior 3 years; exceptions for single parents and displaced homemakers)	Lower-income Wilmington buyers wanting maximum city-level help
DSHA Welcome Home + Keys4You DPA	4% of loan amount	Statewide (any DE address)	Yes	First-time buyers anywhere in Delaware, including Wilmington
DSHA Welcome Home + Take5 DPA	5% of loan amount	Statewide (any DE address)	Yes	First-time buyers wanting maximum statewide DPA
DSHA Open Door + Keys4You or First State DPA	3% or 4% of loan amount	Statewide (any DE address)	No (repeat buyers eligible)	Repeat buyers, or buyers in higher income tiers
PRMI Welcome Home	5% DPA	Statewide (any DE address)	No	Buyers who exceed DSHA income limits, lower credit scores (580 minimum)

The right choice depends on your credit, income, household size, target ZIP code, and whether this is your first home purchase. Different programs have different combinations of income limits, purchase price limits, and counseling requirements – and several of them may stack with each other depending on current program rules. The fastest way to find out which combination may fit your situation is a 15-minute review. Call 302-703-0727 or use the scheduling link below.

City of Wilmington First Start Homebuyer Program

For most Wilmington buyers, the City of Wilmington First Start Homebuyer Program is the closest functional replacement for HAP. It provides up to $15,000 (or 6 percent of the purchase price, whichever is less) as a deferred-payment grant for buyers purchasing inside the City of Wilmington limits. The grant is forgiven after 10 years of owner occupancy.

Key eligibility points: the buyer must not have owned a principal residence in the prior 3 years (single parents and displaced homemakers may qualify under modified rules), the property must be inside the City of Wilmington (does NOT apply to Brandywine Hundred, Pike Creek, or other unincorporated New Castle County addresses), the buyer must contribute at least $1,000 in their own funds toward closing (gift funds do not count toward this $1,000 minimum), the first mortgage must be a fixed-rate 30-year-maximum loan, and the buyer must complete HUD-certified homebuyer counseling before signing the sales contract. Income limits use either the 80 percent or 100 percent of New Castle County Area Median Income tier depending on which funding pool is used in the current cycle – verify current AMI tiers at the time of application.

For a Wilmington first-time buyer with a credit score in the 600s using FHA financing at 3.5 percent down, combining the First Start grant with the FHA loan can reduce cash-to-close from $12,000 to $15,000 down to roughly the $1,000 minimum buyer contribution plus inspection and appraisal fees. That is meaningfully better than HAP ever delivered. Funding is subject to availability and program rules can change between funding cycles, so verify status at the City of Wilmington Department of Real Estate and Housing program page at the start of your mortgage process.

DSHA Welcome Home with Keys4You or Take5 DPA

The Delaware State Housing Authority (DSHA) rebranded its first-time homebuyer programs in April 2026 under the Delaware Mortgage Program umbrella. The first-mortgage track for first-time buyers is DSHA Welcome Home, which can be combined with one of three down payment assistance products:

• DSHA Keys4You – 4 percent of the loan amount as a deferred second mortgage. Available with both Welcome Home and Open Door.
• DSHA Take5 – 5 percent of the loan amount as a deferred second mortgage. Available with Welcome Home only.
• DSHA First State Home Loan DPA – 3 percent of the loan amount as a deferred second mortgage. Available with both Welcome Home and Open Door.

For a Wilmington first-time buyer purchasing a $250,000 home with an FHA loan, the Take5 stack provides roughly $12,500 in DPA on the first mortgage amount. Combined with FHA’s 3.5 percent minimum down payment, this can bring the buyer’s out-of-pocket down payment requirement to near zero. The 2026 DSHA income limits for non-targeted New Castle County areas are $119,400 for 1-2 person households and $137,310 for 3+ person households under Welcome Home (these are the latest limits per DSHA’s 2026 lender bulletins). Welcome Home counts only the income of borrowers on the Note and Mortgage, not all adult household members – this rule changed effective April 15, 2025 and significantly expanded who qualifies.

A Wilmington buyer who qualifies for City of Wilmington First Start AND for DSHA Welcome Home can sometimes combine both – subject to program rules on stacking. This is the kind of combination analysis we do at the application stage. Call 302-703-0727 to walk through your specific scenario.

DSHA Open Door for Repeat Buyers in Wilmington

One of HAP’s stronger features was that it did not require buyers to be first-time home buyers. That made it useful for Wilmington residents who had owned before but were re-entering the market. The current DSHA program that fills that gap is DSHA Open Door, which is the 2026-renamed version of the former “Home Again” program. Open Door is available to both first-time and repeat buyers and has higher income limits than Welcome Home.

Open Door pairs with Keys4You (4 percent DPA) or First State (3 percent DPA). It does NOT pair with Take5 or Diamond in the Rough – those two are Welcome Home only. The 2026 Open Door income limits for non-targeted New Castle County areas are $143,280 for 1-2 person households and $179,100 for 3+ person households, which materially extends eligibility beyond Welcome Home. Open Door counts only the qualifying income on the loan application (Form 1003), not all household income.

For a Wilmington repeat buyer who would have used HAP under the old rules, the Open Door + Keys4You stack typically delivers a comparable or better outcome – more DPA than HAP, with a wider purchase-price footprint than the HAP vacant-property restriction allowed.

PRMI Welcome Home for Buyers Who Exceed DSHA Limits

Some Wilmington buyers earn too much for DSHA programs but still need help with down payment. For that profile, the PRMI Welcome Home lender-proprietary DPA program offers 5 percent of the purchase price as down payment assistance with no income limits, no first-time buyer requirement, and a 580 minimum credit score. This is one of the most flexible DPA programs in Delaware and is particularly useful for households where one or both earners are above DSHA’s $143,280 / $179,100 ceiling for Open Door.

PRMI Welcome Home pairs with FHA, VA, USDA, and conventional first mortgages. The 5 percent DPA is structured as a forgivable second mortgage. For a Wilmington buyer earning $150,000 who would have been excluded from both Welcome Home AND Open Door under the old income test, this program is the difference between buying now and waiting another year. It does require the buyer to use the John Thomas Team as the lender, which is a stronger fit for buyers who want a single-source mortgage experience anyway.

Wilmington Transfer Tax: What Every Buyer Should Know

One detail that catches a lot of Wilmington buyers off guard – and that no DPA program directly covers – is the city’s stacked transfer tax. Delaware state transfer tax is 4 percent of purchase price, typically split 2 percent buyer / 2 percent seller on standard Delaware Association of Realtors (DAR) sales contracts. The City of Wilmington layers an additional 1.5 percent city transfer tax on top of the state portion. That means a Wilmington buyer using a DAR contract owes roughly 3.5 percent in transfer tax at closing (2 percent state buyer-side + 1.5 percent city).

The DPA programs above help with down payment and most closing costs, but transfer tax is a separate cost line that requires its own planning. Buyers using the City of Wilmington First Start program in particular need to budget for transfer tax separately since the First Start grant cannot cover that portion of closing.

How to Choose the Right Wilmington DPA Program

Here is the decision framework I use with Wilmington buyers in 2026. Run through these questions in order:

1. Are you buying inside the City of Wilmington limits? If yes, the City of Wilmington First Start program is usually the strongest single-program option (assuming you meet the 80 percent or 100 percent AMI tier and the 3-year no-ownership rule). If no, skip First Start.
2. Are you a first-time home buyer (no ownership in prior 3 years)? If yes, you are eligible for DSHA Welcome Home + Keys4You (4 percent DPA) or Take5 (5 percent DPA). If no, you need DSHA Open Door + Keys4You or First State.
3. Does your household income exceed the DSHA limits? Welcome Home caps at $119,400 / $137,310 (NCC). Open Door caps at $143,280 / $179,100 (NCC). If you are above both, PRMI Welcome Home (5 percent DPA, no income limits) is your path.
4. What is your credit score? DSHA programs require 620 minimum (some products allow 660 minimum). PRMI Welcome Home allows 580 minimum. Below 580, we need to look at credit repair before applying.
5. Can you stack programs? First Start can sometimes combine with DSHA Welcome Home or Open Door. This is case-by-case and requires verification with both agencies during loan processing.

For a comprehensive overview of every Delaware down payment assistance program (not just Wilmington-area), visit the Delaware Down Payment Assistance Programs hub. For a Wilmington-specific mortgage overview including all loan programs and city neighborhoods, see the Wilmington DE Mortgage Loans page. To attend a free monthly homebuyer counseling session that satisfies most program counseling requirements, see the Delaware First Time Home Buyer Seminar page.

HUD-Approved Housing Counseling Agencies Serving Wilmington Buyers

Most current Wilmington-area DPA programs (City of Wilmington First Start, DSHA Welcome Home and Open Door for credit scores 659 and below, PRMI Welcome Home for the DPA component) require completion of HUD-approved homebuyer counseling before signing a sales contract or applying for a mortgage. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development maintains a current list of approved housing counseling agencies in Delaware that satisfy this requirement. Wilmington and broader New Castle County buyers commonly use:

• West End Neighborhood House – Wilmington-based HUD-approved counseling agency, provides homebuyer education and pre-purchase counseling for Delaware residents.
• YWCA Delaware – statewide HUD-approved counseling agency offering homebuyer education and pre-purchase counseling.
• NeighborGood Partners (formerly NCALL Research) – HUD-approved counseling agency serving Delaware buyers across all three counties.

Each agency sets its own schedule, course format (in-person, virtual, or self-paced online), and certificate-issuance process. Verify your specific program’s counseling requirement and the current HUD-approved agency list at the start of your mortgage process, because counseling completed at a non-HUD-approved provider does not satisfy program requirements. The John Thomas Team also hosts a free monthly Delaware First Time Home Buyer Seminar that pairs with these counseling agencies for the formal certificate process – call 302-703-0727 for the next session date.

FAQ – Wilmington HAP and Current DPA Alternatives

Last Updated: May 2026  |  Mortgage content reviewed by John R. Thomas, NMLS #38783.
John Thomas Team  |  John R. Thomas, NMLS #38783  |  248 E Chestnut Hill Rd, Newark, DE 19713  |  302-703-0727  |  Team@johnthomasteam.com  |  delawaremortgageloans.net
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