Claim that Kamala Harris’ first-time homebuyer assistance plan excludes buyers whose relatives own a home is false

In August 2024, Vice President Kamala Harris announced a plan to provide first-time homebuyers $25,000 to help with their down payment. 

Multiple posts online claim people cannot qualify for the $25,000 assistance under Harris’ plan if they have a parent or sibling who owns a home. 

“The fine print on Harris’s 25K for first time homebuyers; if your mother, father, brother, sister has ever owned a home, you are NOT eligible…pretty much a program exclusively for illegals, and YOU’RE going to pay for it,” one post reads. 

VERIFY reader Cathy reached out to ask about the proposed plan.

THE QUESTION

Are you ineligible for Kamala Harris’ $25,000 first-time homebuyer plan if any of your relatives own a home?

THE SOURCES

• A Kamala Harris campaign press release

• A White House fact sheet

• A Harris/Walz economic policy campaign document

THE ANSWER

No, you are not ineligible for Kamala Harris’ $25,000 first-time homebuyer plan if any of your relatives own a home.

WHAT WE FOUND

Vice President Kamala Harris’ proposed down payment assistance plan does not exclude first-time homebuyers whose family members own a home. While the plan would offer more generous assistance for first-generation homebuyers, any first-time homebuyer who has paid their rent on time for two years would be eligible. 

In March 2024, President Joe Biden and Harris announced a plan to provide 400,000 first-generation homebuyers with $25,000 for down payment assistance. First-generation homebuyers were defined as people whose parents did not own a home. 

Biden’s plan also included a $10,000 tax credit for all other first-time homebuyers. 

The new plan proposed by Harris in August does not include the $10,000 tax credit, but expands on Biden’s plan by allowing all first-time homebuyers, whether first-gen or not, to be eligible for up to $25,000 in assistance.

Harris’ plan would “provide working families who have paid their rent on time for two years and are buying their first home up to $25,000 in down-payment assistance, with more generous support for those whose parents did not own a home,” according to a Harris/Walz economic policy campaign document.

This would allow “over 4 million first-time buyers over four years to get significant down payment assistance,” a release on Harris’ new proposal says. 

As for the claims that the plan was created with these restrictions to cater to undocumented immigrants, it's unlikely that undocumented immigrants would be eligible for Harris’ plan either, as many other governmental housing plans, like federal housing and loan programs, require people to be lawful residents with Social Security numbers.