Fort Wayne’s market behaves more like a large suburb than a mid-size city. New listings peak between May and July, but serious buyers start touring in February when snow-covered yards hide less and sellers feel pressure to close before the school calendar. The sweet-spot price band is $170–230 K; anything move-in ready under $200 K in Southwest Allen or Northwest Allen County schools typically goes under contract within a week. Investors from Chicago and Columbus have shifted focus here, yet owner-occupants still win bids by using local mortgage lenders in Fort Wayne who can guarantee 21-day closes. Median days on market crept from 11 to 18 over the past year, so you now have room to inspect, negotiate a 2 % price reduction, or request a seller credit toward closing costs. If you’re targeting new construction in Pine Valley or the 46845 zip, expect builders to offer $5–8 K in incentives when you finance through their preferred lender—counter that by showing NMHL’s Fresh-Start pre-approval at 6.625 % and watch the incentives jump to $10 K.

Young Professionals: West Central’s brick streets put you three blocks from The Landing’s cocktail bars and the new Electric Works tech campus; lofts trade around $190 K and you can bike to the office in eight minutes.

Families: Aboite and Northwest Allen feed into top-rated Homestead High School—median home $260 K, property tax rate 0.78 %, and swim clubs replace country clubs.

First-time buyers on a budget: Lakeside and 46807 offer 1,200-sq-ft bungalows at $135–150 K; pair with Indiana’s Next Home 6 % grant and your cash-to-close drops under $1,000.

Veterans: New Haven’s 46774 zip is USDA-eligible, so you can combine zero-down VA with the $4,000 Indiana Military Family grant and own for nothing upfront.

House-hackers: Buy a 1900s duplex in South Wayne for $170 K, live in one side, rent the other for $950, and let NMHL use 75 % of that lease to qualify you for a bigger loan.

Fort Wayne buyers can stack more assistance than almost anywhere in the Midwest. Start with Indiana Housing’s Next Home: 6 % of the purchase price forgiven after 10 years. Add Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis’s $7,500 First-Time Homebuyer grant (available through NMHL) for closing costs; funds release every July and are gone by September, so pre-qualify in June. City of Fort Wayne chips in $2,500 toward inspection and appraisal if your household income is below 80 % of AMI—$55,900 for a family of three. If you’re a veteran or active-duty, Indiana’s Military Family Home-ownership adds $4,000 more, and NMHL waives its $1,195 underwriting fee. Finally, use seller concessions up to 6 % on FHA or 3 % on conventional to cover prepaid taxes and insurance; on the median $195,000 price that’s $11,700 on FHA—more than enough to walk to closing with a $500 personal check.

Indiana’s constitution caps owner-occupied homesteads at 1 % of assessed value, but Allen County’s blended rate comes in at 0.82 %, so the $195,000 median home incurs roughly $1,600 in annual tax. Assessment notices arrive in June; if your “land” line spiked 25 % because the assessor thinks you live on a riverfront lot, file Form 130 online by July 1—NMHL clients get a free how-to webinar every June 15. Senior citizens 65+ with income under $30 K can knock another $12,480 off assessed value through the Over-65 deduction, saving another $250 a year. Veterans with 10 % service-connected disability receive up to $24,960 off assessed value; at Fort Wayne’s rate that’s $205 annual savings, and 100 % disabled vets pay zero property tax. Investors beware: the 1 % cap does not apply to rentals, so plan on 1.3–1.5 % effective rate when you underwrite a house-hack exit strategy.

Fort Wayne’s affordability means you can overcome bad credit faster than in coastal markets. NMHL’s Fresh-Start program approves FHA purchase loans down to 580 with 3.5 % down; if your mid-score sits between 550–579, we’ll take 10 % down and use 12 months of verified rent plus utility history to build a non-traditional credit profile. Our underwriters live on Coliseum Boulevard, so they know that $850 rent on a Lafayette Place duplex should count for something. Self-employed borrowers with 1099 income can skip tax returns entirely through our Bank-Statement Advantage: qualify off 12-month personal or business bank statements at loan-to-values up to 90 %. Average client who switched from traditional FHA to bank-statement saw a $37,000 boost in buying power because we didn’t hit them with Schedule-C write-off reductions. Finally, if you’re one year out of bankruptcy or foreclosure, we can do an FHA manual underwrite with 3.5 % down as long as you’ve re-established two new lines of credit with 12-month clean history—secured credit cards from 3 Rivers Federal Credit Union count.

Veterans can buy a zero-down home anywhere in Allen County up to the $726,200 VA 2024 limit without monthly PMI. Pair that with the Indiana Military Family Home-ownership $4,000 grant and NMHL’s lender credit of up to $1,500, and you can comfortably cover escrow setup plus the appraisal ($675) with nothing out of pocket. Prefer acreage? The 46774 (New Haven) and 46723 (Grabill) zips are USDA-eligible, so you can finance 100 % on a 2-acre hobby farm at 6.375 % and still roll the 1 % guarantee fee into the loan. Jumbo buyers aren’t left out either: NMHL portfolio jumbos start at 10 % down on loan amounts to $1.5 million for Fort Wayne physicians relocating to Parkview Regional; we use 12-month bank statements and count 100 % of RSU income. Rates sit roughly 0.5 % above conforming, but that’s still 1 % lower than Chicago or Detroit jumbo spreads.