Deerfield Beach’s housing market cooled slightly in 2024, but don’t confuse “cooling” with “cheap.” Median sale prices dipped 2.1% year-over-year to $370,000, yet entry-level inventory under $350,000 is still absorbed in under 21 days. The sweet spot is single-family homes between $325,000 and $425,000 west of Federal Highway—neighborhoods like Deerfield Terrace and Wynmoor Gardens—where multiple-offer situations have fallen from 68% to 38% of sales, giving buyers room to negotiate inspection credits or seller-paid rate-buydowns.

Condos tell a different story. Buildings on the Intracoastal with dockage—Century Village, Tropic Cay, and The Cove—are appreciating 6–8% annually because supply is frozen. Only six resale units were listed under $400,000 in April 2024, and two were under contract within five days. If you’re financing, you need a lender who can distinguish between warrantable and non-warrantable quickly; NMHL maintains an internal condo-approval database that flags litigation, reserve-funding shortfalls, and rental-cap issues before you spend $600 on an appraisal.

Rates have bounced between 6.5% and 7.0% for 30-year fixed products, but our NMHL 3-2-1 temporary buydown is cutting effective rates by a full percent the first year, saving the average Deerfield Beach borrower about $235 a month. When you pair that with the city’s down-payment assistance, total first-year housing costs can drop below comparable rent—currently $2,350 for a three-bedroom apartment along Hillsboro Boulevard.

The Cove—Old-Florida charm, walkable to the pier and dozens of mom-and-pop fish markets. Median single-family price: $510,000. Look east of SE 7 Ave for elevated lots that don’t require flood insurance. We closed a VA 0%-down offer here in March; the buyer’s payment was $3,200 all-in, beating the $3,500 rent on a smaller house two blocks away.

Century Village—Age-restricted (55+) but investors can still purchase with 25% down using our NMHL Jumbo Lite program. Maintenance fees ($340–$400) include cable, internet, and shuttle to Publix. Buildings along the south lake rent for $2,800/month in season, netting owners an 8% cap rate even after condo reserves.

Wynmoor Gardens—Not officially Century Village but shares amenities. Prices start at $275,000 for 2/2 villas with carports. HOA is under $300 and allows two pets, so young professionals priced out of Fort Lauderdale are snapping up listings. FHA approved through 2026.

Deerpointe (33442)—Best public-school bang for your buck: Deerfield Park Elementary (A-rating) and Deerfield Beach Middle IB. Median at $345,000, and we can pair a 3% down HomeReady loan with $15,000 in county assistance for households under 80% AMI—basically any family earning under $82,000.

Hillsboro Pines—Luxury gated community west of Powerline. New construction from $1.2 million. NMHL’s one-close construction-to-perm loan locks rate at pre-start, protecting you from spikes while the house is built. Only two lenders in Broward still offer float-down on construction loans—NMHL is one.

Florida Housing Finance Corporation’s HFA Preferred conventional requires only 3% down, and the 3% can come from their Florida Assist second mortgage—effectively 0% out of pocket. Income limit for a two-person household in Broward is $103,700 as of July 2024, well above Deerfield Beach’s median family income.

Broward County SHIP allocates funds by municipality; Deerfield Beach usually receives $1.2 million annually and runs out by October. The grant is $50,000 forgiven after ten years, prorated if you sell early. You must contribute $1,000 of your own funds and complete an eight-hour HUD homebuyer class—NMHL hosts the class every second Saturday in our Deerfield branch on Federal Highway.

City of Deerfield Beach First Responder Program (police, fire, teachers, nurses) offers a $75,000 silent second at 0% interest, deferred until resale or refinance. We stacked it with a 5% down conventional grant for a firefighter buying a $390,000 house in The Cove; total cash to close was $2,100 and the monthly payment landed at $2,450, $300 less than his previous rent.

Florida’s Salute Our Soldiers adds $10,000 in down-payment help for veterans and active duty on top of the VA 0% down. If you’re rated 10% or more service-connected, the funding fee is waived, saving another $6,200 on a $400,000 purchase. NMHL processes the VA waiver in-house; most lenders still ask veterans to request the certificate from the VA regional office in St. Petersburg, adding two weeks.

Deerfield Beach has a huge gig economy—tour-boat captains, fishing charters, Etsy shop owners running logistics from their condos. Traditional underwriting punishes write-offs, but NMHL’s 24-month bank-statement program uses gross deposits with a 50% expense factor. Average rate is only 0.25% above conventional, and you can borrow up to $1.5 million with 15% down. We just funded a $625,000 loan for a scuba instructor who showed $18,000 in monthly deposits but claimed a $12,000 loss on paper.

If your credit took a hit during the pandemic, our NMHL Fresh-Start FHA allows:

• Scores down to 580 with 3.5% down
• One year after Chapter 13 discharge with trustee letter
• Two years after foreclosure with re-established credit and 12 months of on-time rent verified by FrontLobby reporting

For medical collections—common among healthcare workers at Broward Health North—we ignore balances under $2,000 per open collection, so your DTI isn’t skewed by old copays.

Need a rapid rescore? We partner with a local credit company that can update balances overnight through Experian Boost and e-OSCAR. Last Friday we added 37 points to a buyer’s score in 72 hours, moving him from 593 to 630 and dropping his FHA rate by 0.375%, saving $94 a month for the life of the loan.

Deerfield Beach is home to thousands of retirees from Coast Guard Station Fort Lauderdale and reservists who commute to NAS Jacksonville. VA loans here have one big hurdle: many condos exceed the VA’s 25% commercial-space cap. NMHL maintains a live database of VA-approved condos in 33441 and 33442; as of June 2024, Tropic Cay, Century Village, and La Joya are cleared, while Wynmoor Gardens is pending—we expect approval by August.

For single-family homes, the VA zero-down limit in Broward is $766,550, so you can buy up to that amount with no money down and no monthly PMI. If the sales price is higher—say, a waterfront house on Royal Palm Drive listed at $950,000—you simply put 25% of the difference ($45,862) down, still cheaper than conventional 20% down.

Our VA IRRRL (streamline refinance) closes in 14 days and doesn’t require a new appraisal, perfect for veterans who bought in 2021 at 2.75% and want to drop to today’s 5.75% without resetting closing costs. Average monthly savings last quarter: $267.

We also waive the $1,195 underwriting fee for all active-duty buyers and contribute $750 toward the survey—small gestures, but they shave almost a full mortgage payment off your cash-to-close.

Whether you’re renting a duplex on SE 2^nd Street and dreaming of a Cove dock home, or you’ve found the perfect Century Village condo with sunset views over the lake, the first step is a same-day NMHL pre-approval. Upload your last two bank statements, a photo of your driver’s license, and answer 10 questions on our encrypted portal—most borrowers receive their letter within three hours. We’ll tell you exactly which assistance programs you qualify for, what your total cash-to-close will be, and how high you can bid before hitting the county’s income limits.

If you’re self-employed or credit-challenged, we’ll run your file through both automated and manual underwriting engines up front, so you shop with the confidence of a cash buyer. Deerfield Beach listing agents know our letters close; last month 78% of our pre-approved clients had their offers accepted on the first try against an average 2.4 competing bids.

Ready to stop scrolling Zillow and start holding keys? Call 954-555-LOAN or tap the Apply Now button. One of our Florida-licensed loan officers—many living right here in Deerfield Beach—will pick up, even on weekends. Let’s get you home.