Who Writes This, and What We Leave Out
Program and regulatory figures verified September 25, 2026. Details change; confirm your scenario with us.
A page about sourcing is not the most exciting thing on a mortgage site. It is the one that tells you whether to trust the other twenty-five.
Who
Mike Certo, NMLS #260555, Producing Branch Manager at Cornerstone First Mortgage, NMLS #173855.
Cornerstone First Mortgage is a participating lender in the Ohio Housing Finance Agency's programs.
The Ohio Housing Finance Agency is an Equal Opportunity Housing entity. Loans are available on a fair and equal basis regardless of race, color, religion, sex, familial status, national origin, military status, disability or ancestry. Please visit www.ohiohome.org for more information.
Equal Housing Lender. This is not a commitment to lend. Loans are subject to borrower and property qualification.
Where the numbers come from
| What | Source | As of |
|---|---|---|
| Program terms, forgiveness structures, credit and DTI, property rules | OHFA Conventional Program Guidelines and OHFA Government Program Guidelines | July 2026 |
| Income and purchase price limits | OHFA purchase price and income limits | Effective July 1, 2026 |
| Assistance amounts, fees, Mortgage Tax Credit rates | OHFA Programs at a Glance | August 27, 2025 |
| Advertising requirements | OHFA Advertising Guidelines | Read 2026-09-25 |
| Conforming loan limits | FHFA conforming loan limits | 2026 |
| Typical home values | Zillow Research ZHVI, all homes, smoothed | August 2026 |
Where we quote OHFA we quote it rather than paraphrase, because the precise wording carries the rule. The Grants for Grads Ohio-residency clause is the clearest example: a paraphrase would lose it.
When OHFA's own documents disagree
They did, and it changed what we published. OHFA's Programs at a Glance is dated August 2025 and lists police officers among the Ohio Heroes occupations without qualification. The program guidelines carry an April 2026 revision stating that corrections officers are only eligible if the borrower is a deputy sheriff working as a corrections officer, and that Certified Nurse Aides and PCAs qualify only if state licensed.
We follow the guidelines, because they are the operative document and they are newer. The Ohio Heroes page says so explicitly, so a reader who arrived from an older summary can see why the two differ.
Separately, the internal Cornerstone resource for Ohio links two guideline documents that no longer exist; we read the current ones from OHFA's lender page instead.
What we deliberately do not publish
- No rates, APRs or payment amounts, anywhere, including the size of the Ohio Heroes interest rate discount. OHFA publishes that figure; a rate discount is a rate term and this network does not publish rate terms. We name the benefit and point you to OHFA.
- No target-area tract list. Status is assigned by census tract and OHFA publishes a lookup. A list we typed would go stale and could talk a buyer out of a qualifying house.
- No county or city program content. We cover what we are approved to originate.
- No claim that a co-signer's income is excluded from agency qualifying ratios. It is excluded from the OHFA program income limit, because such a co-signer does not live in the property. How it counts for the first mortgage follows Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, VA or USDA rules.
- No funding-level or urgency claim about any OHFA program.
- No OHFA logo. OHFA's advertising guidelines require the logo to be requested from its Office of Public Affairs. We have not requested it, so we do not display it. The fair-housing language OHFA requires is carried on every page.
Corrections
If a figure here is wrong or has moved, tell us and we will fix it and date the fix. OHFA limits changed on July 1 2026 and will change again. Every figure on this site carries the date we verified it for that reason.
See also the full guide and contact us.
Frequently asked questions
Who writes this Ohio down payment assistance site?
Mike Certo, NMLS #260555, Producing Branch Manager at Cornerstone First Mortgage, NMLS #173855. Cornerstone First Mortgage is a participating lender in the Ohio Housing Finance Agency's programs. The site covers OHFA programs because those are the ones we are approved to originate in Ohio.
Where do the figures on this site come from?
OHFA primary sources. Program terms, credit and DTI matrices and property rules come from the July 2026 Conventional and Government Program Guidelines. Income and purchase price limits come from OHFA's limits sheet effective July 1, 2026. Assistance amounts, fees and Mortgage Tax Credit rates come from Programs at a Glance dated August 27, 2025. Loan limits come from FHFA and typical home values from Zillow ZHVI for August 2026.
What happens when OHFA's documents disagree with each other?
We follow the program guidelines over the summary sheet, because the guidelines are the operative document and are more recent. The clearest example is Ohio Heroes: the August 2025 Programs at a Glance lists police officers without qualification, while the guidelines carry an April 2026 revision limiting corrections officers to deputy sheriffs working as corrections officers and requiring state licensure for Certified Nurse Aides and PCAs.
Why does this site not publish the Ohio Heroes rate discount?
Because a rate discount is a rate term, and this site does not publish interest rates, APRs or payment figures anywhere. OHFA publishes the Ohio Heroes discount on its own program page. We describe the benefit and point you there rather than restating a rate term that can change.
Does this site cover city or county programs in Ohio?
No. This site covers Ohio Housing Finance Agency programs, which are what we are approved to originate. Where a separate municipal or county down payment assistance program exists, it falls outside that scope, and we would rather describe OHFA accurately than list programs we cannot deliver.
Mike Certo · NMLS #260555 · Cornerstone First Mortgage NMLS #173855 · Equal Housing Lender. Cornerstone First Mortgage is a participating lender in the Ohio Housing Finance Agency's programs. The Ohio Housing Finance Agency is an Equal Opportunity Housing entity. Loans are available on a fair and equal basis regardless of race, color, religion, sex, familial status, national origin, military status, disability or ancestry. Please visit www.ohiohome.org for more information. Educational content about financing, not a loan commitment and not legal or tax advice. OHFA program terms and limits are set by the Ohio Housing Finance Agency and change; figures here carry the date we verified them. Loans are subject to borrower and property qualification.