Buying your first home in San Jose.

In Silicon Valley, first homes are won on strategy.

Let's be honest about where you're buying. Santa Clara County — San Jose, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Cupertino, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Los Gatos, Milpitas, Campbell, Saratoga, Los Altos, and the towns down toward Morgan Hill and Gilroy — sits among the most expensive housing markets in the nation. We're not going to pretend otherwise, and you should be suspicious of anyone who does. What changes the game here isn't a lower price. It's a smarter approach to the price that's in front of you.

That approach has three parts, and each one is real leverage. First, the down payment is almost certainly smaller than the 20% number stuck in your head. Second, your income probably qualifies for more than a quick glance suggests — Valley pay is rarely a clean W-2 line. Third, first-time buyers who let lenders compete tend to keep money that first-time buyers who take one quote hand away. Get all three right and a Silicon Valley first home stops being a fantasy and starts being a plan.

One more piece of honesty, because it's how you should judge everyone you work with: VegaFi is a Central Valley brokerage, licensed across California and serving Silicon Valley from the wholesale side of the market. We don't have a storefront on Santana Row, and we won't pretend to be your neighborhood San Jose bank. What we bring is fluency in exactly the two things that make this market hard — high price points and complex income — and a network of 50+ lenders we make compete for your loan. Our San Jose mortgage broker guide lays out the full picture.

The down payment is smaller than you think.

Twenty percent down is not required. It never was. Putting 20% down avoids private mortgage insurance, which is why the number gets repeated everywhere — but at Silicon Valley prices, 20% is a genuinely huge sum, and the major loan programs were built specifically so first-time buyers don't have to save it.

Program minimums shown; eligibility and terms vary by buyer and lender. Programs subject to underwriting approval.

A word on PMI, because it scares people more than it should. PMI is a monthly cost that lets you buy years sooner than saving to 20% would — and in a market that has historically appreciated the way this one has, those years are not free to give away. It's temporary: on conventional loans it drops off as you build equity. Waiting to avoid it has a cost too — every year you rent in the Valley is a year of someone else's mortgage you're paying down.

Two more things first-time buyers often don't know. Gift funds from family are allowed on the major programs: parents can help with the down payment, documented with a gift letter and a clean paper trail — common at these price points. And down-payment assistance exists for eligible California buyers, which is the next section.

At these prices, jumbo isn't exotic — it's common.

Because Santa Clara County prices run among the highest in the country, a large share of first purchases here land above the conforming loan limit. That doesn't make them out of reach — it just means the loan has a different name and a slightly different set of rules.

This is exactly why your income deserves a careful look rather than a quick one. Silicon Valley pay is rarely a tidy W-2 salary — restricted stock, bonus income, startup equity, and 1099 consulting are everywhere. Conventional and jumbo underwriting can count many of these income types with the right documentation, which can lift your buying power well past what a napkin calculation suggests. If you're self-employed or your real cash flow doesn't show up cleanly on a tax return, there are bank-statement, 1099, and profit-and-loss paths built for that — see our guide to no-tax-return mortgages in San Jose.

Down-payment help exists.

Beyond low-down-payment loans, down-payment assistance programs can help eligible buyers with the down payment or closing costs. Statewide programs and local programs come and go as funding cycles open and close, and most carry income limits, first-time buyer definitions, and property requirements.

An honest note, and it matters more in a high-cost county than anywhere else: income limits and price caps are the whole game, and no one can tell you today that a specific program will fit your price point or be open the week you apply — funding runs out, rules change, and limits move. What we can do is check what's actually available for your income and price point at the moment you're ready, and navigate the paperwork with you. That's part of the job, not an upsell.

Pick your lane: across the Valley.

Every corner of Santa Clara County plays a different role for first-time buyers. The short version:

Get a preapproval before you shop.

Well-priced homes move fast in this market, and the competition is serious — cash offers and strong dual-income buyers are chasing the same listings. Sellers and listing agents only take offers backed by a credible financing letter. Touring homes before your financing is ready isn't shopping — it's sightseeing.

Know the difference between the two letters. A prequalification is an estimate based on what you tell a lender — quick, unverified, and listing agents know it. A real preapproval means your credit has been reviewed and your income and asset documents — including how your RSUs, bonus, or self-employment income are counted — have been examined, so the letter carries weight when your offer is one of several. Bring the real one.

1. 01 See your options — no credit pull. Tell us your price range and income situation. SmartMatch prices it across 50+ wholesale lenders in about sixty seconds.
2. 02 Pick a direction with a licensed loan officer. Conventional, FHA, VA, jumbo, or an alternative-documentation path — matched to your credit, savings, income structure, and target cities.
3. 03 Get a documented preapproval. Credit reviewed, income and assets verified, letter issued. Nothing touches your credit until you choose to move forward.
4. 04 Shop like a buyer sellers take seriously. Your offer arrives with financing a listing agent can call and verify — which is what wins when a good home draws a crowd.

First-time buyer, nonstandard paperwork.

Plenty of first-time Santa Clara buyers don't fit the W-2 template. If you're self-employed — a consultant, a contractor, a founder, a small business owner — legitimate write-offs and deductions can make the income on your tax return look smaller than your real cash flow, and there are documentation paths built for exactly that. And if you file taxes with an ITIN instead of a Social Security number, there's a path for you too: our ITIN homeownership guide covers a seller-financed program that doesn't require an SSN at all — available in English and Spanish, and first-class in a county with communities this large.

First-time buyers pay the obedience tax.

Here's the pattern lenders count on: a first-time buyer walks into the bank where they've had a checking account since college, gets one quote, and takes it — because they don't know what a second opinion would even look like. On a Silicon Valley loan balance, over the life of a 30-year loan, the gap between a padded quote and a sharp one adds up to serious money. A single quote can hide that gap forever.

VegaFi exists to close it. SmartMatch prices your scenario across 50+ wholesale lenders at once, and if you already have a quote in hand, the CounterOffer engine lets lenders bid against your existing Loan Estimate. Getting matched is free, and nothing touches your credit until you choose a lender. If you want to learn to compare offers yourself first, our guide to reading a Loan Estimate shows how to do it line by line.

First-time buyer questions, answered.

More San Jose guides.