The Yale Homebuyer Program provides financial support, neighborhood incentives, and guidance for employees ready to put down roots in New Haven.

Homes with flowers and tress along a sidewalk.

Whether new to New Haven or new to buying a house, navigating the real estate market can be daunting. Yale provides employees support — including incentives to buy in New Haven neighborhoods — as they make the city home.

Lauren Langford and her husband, Tom, both Yale employees, loved living in the East Rock neighborhood. They enjoyed the proximity to work and local eateries. Tom, a senior computational research support analyst at the Yale Center for Research Computing, could walk to work, and they developed a close network of friends.

When they decided to buy a house, Lauren, the associate director of Finance Communications, heard about the Yale Homebuyer Program (HBP) and attended a workshop. “I couldn’t believe Yale offered such an amazing benefit, and I was happily astonished to find this neighborhood was included,” Lauren said.

They purchased a multifamily home in the East Rock neighborhood in 2019; the program allows renting if the house is the buyer’s primary residence. Lauren makes it a point to share her positive experience with colleagues. “As first-time homebuyers, we especially appreciated this benefit when we encountered a few unexpected repair projects,” she said.

Many people think of benefits in terms of medical or dental, but this is an inclusive,  long-term investment in staff.

—

said Lauren

The Yale Homebuyer Program

Established in 1994, the program provides a $30,000 total benefit to eligible Yale staff and faculty who purchase a home in New Haven, part of the university’s commitment to its home city. Over the life of the program, Yale has allocated more than $36 million to assist over 1,400 employees in purchasing a home, yielding more than $300 million in total New Haven home purchases.

The program is available to any Yale University employee who is either a permanent staff member scheduled to work 20 hours or more hours per week, or a faculty member with an appointment of at least one year at 50% or more of full-time.

The $30,000 total benefit, to which taxes apply, includes a $7,500 first-year payment (a $5,000 initial bonus and a first annual payment of $2,500) and an annual $2,500 grant for the next 9 years. Participants must commit to owning and residing within the home or condominium for at least two years from closing, and the benefit ends if the participant ends occupancy. Households with more than one Yale employee are eligible for only one award.

Neighborhoods covered in the program include Beaver Hills, Dixwell, Dwight, East Rock, Fair Haven, Hill, Newhallville, West Rock, and Wooster. Benefit-eligible employees may also receive a $5,000 special incentive payment for purchasing in a designated area of the Dixwell/Winfield neighborhood.

How to apply

Begin the process by filling out an online form. Be prepared to attach the home sale and purchase agreements. Yale Human Resources will evaluate your eligibility and home location before contacting you to schedule the payment.

House-related resources and savings

Request a free tree. Find out how to get a free tree planted in front of your New Haven home.

Mortgage savings

Through Yale Advantages, benefit-eligible employees can access discounts and incentives for home financing.

  • Citizens Bank offers a $1,000 credit at closing and 0.125 percentage point discount off your mortgage rate.
  • Rocket Mortgage – Save 1% of the loan amount on your next home purchase or refinance.
  • Webster Bank offers a $500 credit towards closing costs for purchase mortgage applications or $250 off the mortgage origination fee and a .125% ACH discount.
  • M&T Bank (mortgage) – Get a $1,000 lender credit when purchasing or refinancing a primary residence in Connecticut.

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