The State of New York offers a variety of mortgage resources for home buyers and homeowners. From buying your first home and understanding the affordability of your Syracuse mortgage to doing a refinance on your New York City mortgage, to preventing foreclosure on your Rochester home, our list of NY mortgage and homeowner resources sites can help.

While you're here, if you're comparing mortgage rate offers, you can request quotes from pre-screened NY mortgage lenders by filling the form to the right. It's a service we provide and it's free to compare up to four competing offers. There's absolutely no obligation to you.

Buying Your First NY Home: Getting an Education on New York Mortgages

For most of us, a home is the largest investment we will make in our lives. The amount and complexity of information involved in finding a home and getting the right mortgage can be confusing. A good way to prepare for the process is to attend an education session for first time home buyers.

Attending these programs may also help you qualify you for home buyer assistance programs or financing opportunities for first time buyers. Buying a home can be an exciting time, and it's easy to skip steps in the interest of getting the deal done, but enrolling in a first time buyer education program (click The Department of Housing & Urban Development's New York Site for a list of approved agencies offering New York home buyer education, counseling, and other services) can help you find and keep a home that you can afford.

Buyer assistance programs are typically designed for first time buyers. If you haven't owned a home in the last three years, you may qualify for first time buyer assistance. These programs usually include a combination of subsidized interest rates, down payment assistance, and tax credits.

The NY Real Estate Roller Coaster: New York Mortgage Refinancing

Contacting your current mortgage lender is a good way to start if you want to refinance or need help with any aspect of your home loan. However, always do your homework and compare lenders and mortgage refinance offers. Getting a quote from a New York mortgage lender is free and you'll want to make sure that you have the best refinance offer available to you. Also, a live offer from a competing lender may make it possible for you to negotiate against your current lender!

Unfortunately, your lender may not be able to provide assistance if you live in an area of New York where property values have significantly declined. Refinancing can be impossible if your home has lost value. But there are some New York-sponsored programs and resources to help you refinance or modify your home loan.

If you're carrying too much debt or need help with avoiding foreclosure, there are programs and services that can help you save your home, develop a cash-based budget, and manage debt (again, you can access some of these services though the form above by selecting "debt consolidation").

The resources supplied here provide an overview of available programs; as you visit these Web sites, you'll find additional information and assistance.  Also, please make use of our loan calculators which include a refinance calculator, a mortgage loan rate comparison calculator, and an amortization calculator & amortization chart.  There's also a mortgage calculator to tell you your monthly payments, and an affordability calculator that looks as how much you can spend, and your expenses to show you how much home you can afford.