The program, called the American Dream Grant, was started by the Salt Lake Board of Realtors’ Charity Committee in 2019. It offers buyers $10,000 in individual grants, meant to help homebuyers with down payments and closing costs.

To qualify for the grant, according to the board’s website, homebuyers must:

• Have a real estate agent who is a member of the Salt Lake Board of Realtors.
• Be a first-time homebuyer or have not owned a home within the last three years.
• Have a credit score higher than 640.
• Have a household income of no more than $141,400.
• Must be purchasing an owner-occupied home. Modular and manufactured homes qualify, but mobile homes don’t.
• Must close on the home purchase within 90 days of being awarded the grant. If not, the money will be forfeited.
• Must be pre-qualified with a mortgage lender before applying.

So far this year, eight $10,000 grants have already been awarded to homebuyers, the Salt Lake Board of Realtors said in a news release issued Monday.

Winners of the next four grants will be announced on May 20.

Salt Lake Board of Realtors agents can apply for their qualifying clients online on the board’s website.

“Helping first-time buyers achieve homeownership strengthens our communities and creates lasting stability for families,” Scott Colemere, president of the Salt Lake Board of Realtors, said in a prepared statement. “These grants not only provide financial assistance but also demonstrate the generosity and commitment of Realtors to giving back.”

In total, as of the end of last year, the Salt Lake Board of Realtors had awarded about half a million dollars in grants.

Housing affordability remains a top issue facing Utahns, with home prices that skyrocketed amid the COVID-19 pandemic and a longstanding housing shortage that continues to pinch supply. In 2024, Utah’s housing market ranked as the ninth most expensive in the nation, according to a report published last year by the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute.

Utah’s statewide median home sales price was $505,000 as of February, according to the Utah Association of Realtors.

The Salt Lake Board of Realtor’s grant program isn’t the only one available to Utah home shoppers.

In 2023, the Utah Legislature used $50 million to create the state’s First-time Homebuyers Assistance Program, administered by the Utah Housing Corporation. Lawmakers in 2025 added $20 million to the program, and another $10 million earlier this year.

Since its creation, the state’s program has helped about 3,000 Utahns buy homes. It offers up to $20,000 in no-interest loans to go toward the purchase of a newly-constructed, not yet inhabited home with a sale price that doesn’t exceed $450,000. The loan can be used for a down payment, closing costs and a permanent interest rate buy down.

The state program still has capacity to help about 338 Utah homebuyers, according to the Utah Housing Corporation’s website.