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Colorado teachers and other public school employees can now get help with down payments and closing costs through a new state program aimed at making homeownership more attainable.
The Schools to Home program launched July 1 to provide assistance to educators and other public school employees who are first-time homebuyers. So far, 85 people have used the program, according to a spokesperson for the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority, which manages the program. The authority estimates that with its initial funding, the program will help about 125 home purchases with an average assistance amount of $80,000 per home.
The program came out of a 2025 state law and is the latest in a raft of state and local efforts to help public school employees purchase homes in a pricey market. The goal is to alleviate teacher shortages, boost retention, and allow more educators to live in the community where they work. A number of Colorado districts already offer employees help with housing, often by subsidizing rent or by providing options like tiny homes that are less expensive than traditional homes.
On average, Colorado teachers in district-run schools earned about $78,000 last school year and teachers in charter schools earned about $60,000 a year. In July, Colorado’s median home price was $550,000, according to the Colorado Association of Realtors.
The Colorado Department of Treasury invested $10 million from the state’s Public School Permanent Fund to start Schools to Home, and will make additional investments in the coming months. The income earned from those investments will fund the program.
To be eligible, participants must work full time in a school district, public school, charter school, innovation school, or Board of Cooperative Educational Services. They must take a homebuyer education class, and meet certain credit score requirements and income limits.
The maximum assistance public school employees can receive through Schools to Home is 25% of their first mortgage loan.
In exchange for getting downpayment assistance from the state, participants will have to repay the amount they received when they sell the house. They’ll also have to pay the state a portion of the amount by which the home’s value increases. If the home’s value decreases or stays the same, the participant will only have to pay back the downpayment amount they received initially.
To learn more about the program, visit the Schools to Home website.
Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.
