Buyer Guide
Ask people why they haven't started looking for a home in Las Vegas, and one answer comes up constantly: they think they need 20% down first. It's one of the most common, most avoidable reasons a ready buyer waits years longer than they actually have to.
20% is a threshold, not a requirement. It’s the amount that lets you skip private mortgage insurance on a conventional loan. It has nothing to do with the minimum amount a lender will actually let you put down. The real minimums are lower, in some cases much lower, and Nevada runs its own down-payment-assistance programs that can close the rest of the gap. Here’s what’s actually required, and what’s actually available.
The actual minimums, by loan type
None of these require 20% down. 20% is the threshold that lets you skip mortgage insurance on a conventional loan, not a minimum to qualify for financing.
- FHA
- 3.5%
- VA
- 0%
- Conventional, qualifying buyers
- 3%
- Conventional, typical
- 5%
with a 580+ credit score (10% for 500-579)
for eligible veterans, service members, some surviving spouses
income-restricted programs (e.g. Freddie Mac Home Possible)
the more common conventional minimum otherwise
USDA loans can also reach 0% down, but only in eligible rural areas, so they aren’t shown here as a general Las Vegas Valley option. Loan terms and program income/price limits change; confirm current numbers with a lender before budgeting around any figure here.
The fine print on each loan type
- FHA: 3.5% down with a credit score of 580 or higher. If your score is between 500 and 579, FHA requires 10% down instead. Note that many FHA-approved lenders set their own, stricter minimum score in practice, even though FHA’s own floor is lower.
- VA: 0% down for eligible veterans, active-duty service members, and some surviving spouses with a Certificate of Eligibility. There’s no monthly mortgage insurance, but most borrowers pay a one-time VA funding fee, commonly around 2.15% of the loan amount on a first use with nothing down (less if you put more down), usually rolled into the loan rather than paid out of pocket. Veterans receiving VA disability compensation, Purple Heart recipients on active duty, and certain surviving spouses are exempt from the fee entirely.
- Conventional: as low as 3% down through specific programs built for qualifying buyers, income-restricted (Freddie Mac Home Possible and Fannie Mae HomeReady are the two you’ll hear about most). Outside those programs, 5% is the more typical conventional minimum.
- USDA: 0% down exists, but it’s restricted to eligible rural areas and household income limits. We haven’t verified that any specific Las Vegas Valley address qualifies, so treat this as a general option elsewhere in Nevada rather than something to count on here.
Two programs with almost the same name that are not the same thing
Here’s a mix-up worth clearing up directly, because the names are genuinely confusing. Nevada’s state down-payment-assistance program is branded Home Is Possible (homeispossiblenv.org), run by the Nevada Housing Division. Separately, Freddie Mac has a national conventional loan product called Home Possible that allows as little as 3% down for income-qualified buyers, capped at 80% of the area median income for wherever the property sits.
These are two unrelated things from two different organizations. Nevada’s Home Is Possible is assistance money layered on top of a loan (conventional, FHA, USDA, or VA); Freddie Mac’s Home Possible is the loan itself. In some cases a buyer could actually use both at once, Nevada’s assistance covering part of the down payment on a Freddie Mac Home Possible loan, but they’re not interchangeable, and assuming one is the other is a good way to misunderstand what you actually qualify for.
Nevada's own assistance: Home Is Possible
The Nevada Housing Division’s Home Is Possible program comes in more than one track, and it’s worth being upfront that the Division’s own current pages don’t fully agree with each other on the specifics, so we’re presenting exactly what each says rather than picking one number to round to.
- The general track, with no first-time-buyer requirement, describes assistance of up to 5% of the loan value toward down payment or closing costs. Minimum credit score 640 (660 for manufactured homes), qualifying income up to $165,000, home price up to $832,750, and it works with conventional, FHA, USDA, or VA financing.
- A separate track, restricted to buyers who haven’t owned a home in the past 3 years, describes assistance of up to 4% of the total loan amount, structured as a 30-year, non-forgivable second loan at a fixed rate for the term.
5% versus 4%, and one page states a non-forgivable structure while the other doesn’t state a repayment structure at all. That’s not us rounding carelessly, that’s what the Division’s own site currently shows. Which track, percentage, and structure applies to you depends on your situation and your lender’s enrollment in the program, so confirm it directly with a participating lender or the Nevada Housing Division (702-486-7220 in Southern Nevada, 775-687-2240 in Northern Nevada) before assuming which number is yours.
Home Is Possible for Teachers
The Division also runs a teacher-specific track: currently $7,500 toward down payment or closing costs, forgivable after 5 years of homeownership, for licensed full-time K-12 public school classroom teachers, no first-time-buyer requirement, income limit $165,000, same 640/660 credit floor as the other Home Is Possible tracks. Worth flagging: the program’s own page currently states it’s available only through December 31, 2026, so a teacher weighing this shouldn’t assume it will still be open next year.
The newest option: the Worker Advantage Program
This is the piece most Las Vegas buyers haven’t heard of yet, because it’s less than a year old. The Nevada Housing Division launched the Worker Advantage Program on December 10, 2025, funded at $18 million to help roughly 900 Nevada households. It offers $20,000 in down payment assistance, structured as a no-interest, no-payment, non-forgivable 30-year second mortgage, one of the more concrete, unambiguous structures among Nevada’s assistance programs.
Buyers can put the full $20,000 toward their down payment, or split it: using part to buy down the primary loan’s interest rate through discount points, with the remainder going toward down payment or closing costs.
It’s not open to everyone. Eligibility is built around essential workers in healthcare, education, public safety, and construction trades. Household income has to be at or below 150% of the area median income (AMI) for the county, which varies statewide. In Clark County, that limit is currently $147,300, per the Division’s own eligibility table. Other requirements: a minimum 640 credit score (660 for manufactured homes), at least 6 months of Nevada residency, and a primary-residence purchase price up to $832,750. It’s first-come, first-served until the $18 million is reserved, and it can’t be combined with the standard Home Is Possible grant, HIP for Heroes, or HIP for Teachers.
The program came out of the Nevada Housing Access and Attainability Act (AB540), passed by the 2025 Nevada Legislature. Local Las Vegas TV coverage (8 News Now, KTNV, Fox5 Vegas) corroborated the launch alongside the Division’s own announcement.
Nevada’s essential workers keep our communities running—they care for us, teach our children, build our homes, and protect our neighborhoods.
Steve Aichroth, Nevada Housing Division Administrator
What this means for your timeline
Put this next to the rest of what LVINIT has already reported this year and the picture gets more useful, not less. Las Vegas home prices pulled back from a record high in July 2026, and the starter tier of the market eased slightly too, even after more than doubling over the past decade. Neither of those is a dramatic correction. But if the thing actually holding you back was a belief that you needed six figures saved up before you could even apply, that belief was never accurate, and it’s worth separating from the real question of whether current prices and rates work for your budget.
A concrete example helps here more than a rule of thumb does. Our look at three real homes near $500K shows what that budget actually buys around the valley. Run the minimums above against a number like that, and the down payment on a $500K home with, say, an FHA loan is roughly $17,500, not the $100,000 that 20% would imply, before any assistance program is even factored in.
What to actually do next
- Talk to a lender about your actual credit score and loan options before ruling yourself out. The FHA/VA/conventional minimums above are the floor, not a guess.
- If you work in healthcare, education, public safety, or a construction trade, ask your lender directly whether they participate in the Worker Advantage Program before you assume it’s unavailable or already exhausted.
- Don’t assume Nevada’s Home Is Possible and Freddie Mac’s Home Possible are the same conversation with your lender. Ask about each by name.
- If you’re a K-12 teacher, ask now whether Home Is Possible for Teachers is still funded and available before December 31, 2026 rather than waiting until later in the year.
- Confirm every income limit, price cap, and repayment structure directly with a participating lender or the Nevada Housing Division before you build a budget around it. These programs change.
Sources
- Nevada Housing Division. Official program pages, current as of this writing: Home Is Possible, the first-time-buyer track, Home Is Possible for Teachers, and Worker Advantage, the source for every Nevada program detail, credit-score floor, income limit, and the Clark County AMI figure above.
- Nevada Governor’s Office of Business and Industry (business.nv.gov). “Nevada Housing Division Launches New Down Payment Assistance Program to Help Essential Workers Become Homeowners,” December 10, 2025 — source for the Worker Advantage launch date, funding amount, household target, and the quote from Administrator Steve Aichroth, at business.nv.gov.
- Local Las Vegas television coverage corroborating the Worker Advantage launch: 8 News Now, KTNV, and Fox5 Vegas.
- Freddie Mac. Official Home Possible program pages and February 2026 fact sheet — source for the 3% conventional down payment minimum, the 80% area-median-income limit, and the 2026 conforming loan limits, at sf.freddiemac.com.
- FHA and VA program minimums — the 3.5%/580 and 10%/500-579 FHA thresholds, and the VA funding fee structure and exemptions, are well-established, multi-source- confirmed federal loan program rules, cross-checked across Freedom Mortgage, AmeriSave, Veterans United, and VA.gov during this pass.
This article is general information, not lending, tax, or financial advice. Program terms, income and price limits, credit-score requirements, and funding availability change and can be exhausted before a program’s stated end date. Confirm current eligibility and structure with a participating lender or the Nevada Housing Division before making a decision.
About this coverage
Mikey Del Rosario · Las Vegas Real Estate Advisor · The Scofield Group · Nevada License S.0175577. Equal Housing Opportunity.