Home financing in Broward County.
County-by-county financing guides. No paperwork. No social. No ID.
9 institutions are headquartered inside the Broward County line, Fort Lauderdale included, and 9 more keep a branch here. Below, we say which is which.
Not this lane? Business FinancingPersonal Financing
The doors in Broward County.
The CDFIs, credit unions, and microlenders that actually say yes — county by county, in two languages. We are not a lender. Nobody paid to be listed. And where a county has no good doors, we say so.
- 18
- DOORS HERE
- 9
- BASED HERE
- 62
- FL COUNTIES WITH DOORS
- Lane
- Home Financing
- People
- 1.9Mresidents of Broward County
- Covers
- Fort Lauderdale
- Elsewhere in FL
- Miami-Dade County →24 doors — the biggest list of any other county in Florida
- State
- Florida →62 of 67 counties hold a door in this lane
Certified by the U.S. Treasury to lend where a bank will not. Nonprofit, patient, and used to a file that is not clean.
Dade County Credit Union · We Florida Financial Credit UnionOwned by their members, not by shareholders. They look at your whole story rather than a score, and that is the difference when a bank says no.
Brightstar Credit Union · Broward Healthcare Credit Union- Brightstar Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
- Broward Healthcare Credit UnionPersonal · Home
- Connect Credit UnionPersonal · Home
- Memorial Employees Financial Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
- Power Financial Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
- IN THIS LIST
3 of the 18 doors inside the county line are CDFI-certified.
The U.S. Treasury certifies them to lend to the people banks pass over. It is a loan, not a favour.
- Priorityone Credit Union of FloridaPersonal · Home
- Tropical Financial Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
- We Florida Financial Credit UnionCDFI-certifiedPersonal · Home · Business capital
Show the other 1Show fewer
- Central County Community Development CorporationCommunity lending · Business capital
Based elsewhere, with a member-facing office inside the Broward County line. You can walk in.
- Dade County Credit UnionCDFI-certifiedMinority depositoryPersonal · Home · Business capital
- Educational Credit UnionPersonal · Home
- First Florida Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
- Ithink Financial Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
- Jm Associates Credit UnionPersonal · Home
- NO AGENDA
Nobody paid to be on this list.
The 18 doors inside the county line come off public data, and 17 of them are owned by their own members. We do not ask for your name, and we earn nothing if you knock on one door rather than another.
- Justice Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
Show the other 3Show fewer
- Publix Employees Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
- Space Coast Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
- Ukrainian Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
- Mission Asset FundAccepts ITIN
Zero-interest lending circles and credit building. SSN or ITIN accepted. Works through nonprofit partners across the country.
Personal - Accion Opportunity FundAccepts ITIN
Nonprofit small-business lender. Accepts ITIN in place of SSN. Serves most states, in English and Spanish.
Business capital - Grameen AmericaAccepts ITIN
Microloans for women entrepreneurs. Requires photo ID and proof of address — no SSN requirement. Branches in major metro areas.
Business capital
How to read this list.
We do not ask for your name, your email, or your number. Nothing on this page changes based on who you are.
A door is headquartered here when its head office sits inside the county line. The rest are based elsewhere and keep a branch you can walk into. We list both, and we label which is which.
Every institution on this page comes from public federal data — the CDFI Fund certified list (Aug 2026), NCUA credit union data (Jun 2026), and the SBA microloan intermediary list (Sep 2026) — plus a short national tier we verified by hand. We refresh each list as its agency publishes. No listing is paid.
Broward County holds nearly two million people from Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood through Pembroke Pines, Miramar, Sunrise, and Pompano Beach. Buying here means dealing with three things that decide everything: insurance, flood, and — if you are buying a condo — the association. This guide explains how home financing works in Broward, who qualifies when income is 1099 or seasonal or comes from several earners, what documents you need, which community lenders are based in the county, Florida's homestead and closing rules, and the traps that cost homeowners here their equity after a storm.
It's a process, not a rejection.
Home financing means borrowing to buy, keep, or improve a place to live. The plain shapes:
- A purchase mortgage — the loan that buys the property, repaid over many years.
- A refinance — replacing your current mortgage with a new one, usually to lower the payment or pull out equity.
- A home equity loan or line of credit — borrowing against value you already have, for a roof, repairs, or debt.
- A renovation or rehab loan — repair money folded into the purchase or refinance. In a county full of older houses and older buildings, this matters more here than most places.
- Down payment and closing-cost assistance — public and nonprofit programs, generally for first-time buyers under an income limit.
Three things make Broward different from almost anywhere else in the country, and you need to understand all three before you shop.
Insurance decides affordability here, not the mortgage rate. Homeowners insurance in South Florida is a major monthly cost, and availability depends heavily on the age and condition of the roof and on wind-mitigation features.
A house you can afford at one insurance quote is unaffordable at another.
Get quotes before you make an offer, not after inspection.
Flood is a separate question from homeowners insurance. Much of Broward is low and flat. Flood coverage is a separate policy, and if the property is in a designated flood zone with a federally backed mortgage, it is required.
Check the flood zone and get a flood quote on any property you are serious about.
This single step prevents more heartbreak in this county than anything else in this guide.
Condos are their own world. A very large share of what is for sale in Broward is condominium, and the building matters as much as the unit. Lenders review the association's finances, reserves, insurance, litigation, and owner-occupancy; a building that fails those reviews is called non-warrantable and most ordinary loans will not touch it. Florida also requires milestone structural inspections and structural integrity reserve studies for many buildings, which has produced significant special assessments for owners.
Before you buy a condo, read the association's budget, reserve study, insurance declarations, and the minutes of recent meetings, and ask directly whether any assessment has been voted or is being discussed. Also ask whether the building's rules restrict renting, in case your plans change.
Forget what the banks say.
A mortgage lender weighs four things: your income and how documentable it is, your debts against that income, your credit, and cash for the down payment and closing.
Broward households often look unusual on all four, in ways that are completely normal here:
- Multiple earners in one household. Very common, and a strength. But everyone whose income is used has to be on the loan, and everyone on the loan gets credit pulled.
- 1099 and self-employed income — construction trades, marine trades, landscapers, drivers, stylists, home health workers, cleaners. Underwriters read your net after deductions, not your gross. Two years of returns is the usual bar. If you have been writing off aggressively, your borrowing power is lower than your bank account suggests — talk to a lender before you file the next return.
- Seasonal income — hospitality, charter, tour, and event work. Lenders want to see a full annual cycle, ideally two, so they can average it rather than panic at a slow quarter.
- Tip income. Real and usable, but it has to be reported to count. Tips you did not declare do not exist to an underwriter.
- Thin or no credit file. If you have always paid cash, you may have no score. Ask specifically for a manual underwrite using rent receipts, utility payments, and insurance history. Some credit unions and FHA lenders will; most big-bank web portals will not.
Down payment. You do not need a huge down payment here. FHA-insured loans allow a low down payment and more forgiving credit; VA loans serve veterans and service members; USDA rural programs apply in the county's western rural areas; conventional low-down-payment programs exist. Florida's state housing finance agency and Broward County and city programs offer down payment and closing-cost assistance to first-time buyers under income limits, and those programs are genuinely used in this county.
What you must be able to do is document where every dollar came from — gift letters, seasoned deposits, a paper trail.
Money appearing in your account the week before closing stops the loan.
ITIN. A mortgage with an ITIN rather than a Social Security number is harder but not legally impossible; some portfolio lenders and community institutions do it, usually with a larger down payment and on their own terms.
Nobody should promise you one before seeing your file.
Ask each institution directly, and do not stop at the first no. In mixed-status households, decide who applies before you fill anything out — it changes which programs are open to you.
Get your papers in order.
Home lending asks for more paper than anything else. Build the folder once and reuse it with every lender you interview — and interview more than one.
- 01**Government-issued photo ID** for every borrower
- 02**SSN or ITIN** for every borrower
- 03**Federal tax returns for the last two years**, all schedules, plus W-2s or 1099s
- 04**Pay stubs** covering the last 30 days if you are on payroll
- 05**Bank statements** for the last two to three months on every account you will use for down payment or reserves
- 06**Profit-and-loss and business bank statements** if you are self-employed
- 07**Proof of rent paid**
Canceled checks, money orders, or a landlord letter; this matters a great deal with a thin credit file
- 08**Gift letters** from anyone helping with the down payment
- 09**The signed purchase contract** once you are under contract
- 10**Homeowners insurance quote
And a flood quote if applicable** — in Broward, get these early; they are not formalities
- 11**A four-point inspection and wind mitigation report** on an older home — insurers often require them, and they drive your premium
- 12**For a condo**
The association's budget, reserve study, insurance declaration page, recent meeting minutes, and any assessment notices, plus the lender's condo questionnaire
- 13**Divorce decree
Child support order, or bankruptcy discharge** if any apply
- 14**Residency documentation** where the loan program requires it — ask up front which programs do, so you do not waste an application
- MISSING ONE?Ask Iris which one you're missing.ASK A QUESTION ↓
The doors worth knowing.
Broward is better served than most counties: a community development corporation and a community development credit union are both headquartered here.
ALL 18 DOORS, BY NAME AND BY TOWN- 18
- DOORS HERE
- 110
- ACROSS FL
Based in Sweetwater, Florida. A credit union — owned by its members rather than by shareholders, which is exactly what changes the conversation after a bank has said no. It is CDFI-certified, and it is a minority depository.
BEST FORA personal loan, or building a credit file from nothing, and buying, repairing or refinancing a home.Based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. A member-owned credit union, which means the people deciding on your file answer to depositors in the same towns you work in. It is CDFI-certified.
BEST FORBuying, repairing or refinancing a home, and working capital, equipment and payroll for a small business.Based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. A credit union: no shareholders to satisfy, and a habit of reading a whole story rather than a single score.
BEST FORWorking capital, equipment and payroll for a small business, and a personal loan, or building a credit file from nothing.Based in Chantilly, Virginia. A credit union — owned by its members rather than by shareholders, which is exactly what changes the conversation after a bank has said no.
BEST FORA personal loan, or building a credit file from nothing, and buying, repairing or refinancing a home.
Don't fall into these traps.
This is the Broward-specific trap. After a storm, crews canvass neighborhoods offering to handle the insurance claim and arrange financing. Verify the state or county license before anyone touches your roof. Never sign a document assigning your insurance benefits to a contractor without understanding exactly what you handed over. Get more than one bid. Never pay in full before the work is complete and inspected. And never let the contractor be your lender.
Some home-improvement financing in Florida attaches to your property tax bill rather than behaving like a normal loan, which can complicate refinancing or selling later. Before signing anything a contractor arranges, ask plainly: does this become a lien on my property, does it ride on my tax bill, and what happens if I sell? Then compare it against a plain loan from a credit union.
A refinance that lowers your payment while adding years and fees can quietly cost you the equity you spent decades building. Compare total cost over the life of the loan, not just the monthly payment.
If you fall behind and someone offers to take title while you rent it back, you are being asked to give away your house. Never sign a deed to anyone who is not buying the property at arm's length with independent help reading the papers. This is the most serious risk on this page.
Charging you in advance to negotiate with your servicer is prohibited in most circumstances; HUD-approved counselors do that work free.
Not predatory — just the most expensive avoidable mistake in this county. A cheap unit in a building facing a structural assessment is not cheap.
Also not predatory, also devastating. Check the flood zone and get a flood insurance quote before you are emotionally committed.
Untraceable money kills approvals at the last minute. If you save at home or send and receive remittances, start depositing consistently months in advance so the savings has history.
Nothing is real until it is written on the Loan Estimate and the Closing Disclosure. Read both, compare them to each other, and ask about every difference before you sign.
Everything below is set by Florida, and it reads the same in every county in it. The 18 marks above are this county's own doors — who opens one is decided by them, not by the state.
The rules where you are.
Once you own and occupy the home as your permanent residence, file for the homestead exemption with the county property appraiser. It reduces your taxable value and — through Florida's assessment cap — limits how fast your assessed value can rise year to year while you keep the homestead. Additional exemptions exist for people sixty-five and older, for widows and widowers, for people with disabilities, and for veterans with service-connected disabilities. If you sell and buy another Florida homestead, **portability** may let you carry accumulated savings with you; ask the property appraiser. Nobody files this for you, and no one should charge you to file it.
Your primary residence is shielded from most creditors under the Florida Constitution. That is a serious reason never to secure a consumer debt with your house.
Your title company or closing attorney handles escrow and issues title insurance. Read the title commitment for liens, easements, and unreleased old mortgages. Florida also charges documentary stamp taxes on the deed and on new notes, plus an intangible tax on mortgages — real money that shows up on your Closing Disclosure. Ask every lender for a written **Loan Estimate** so you can compare two offers line by line.
The seller's capped assessment does not transfer to you. Your tax bill in the first full year of ownership can be substantially different from the seller's. Never judge affordability from the seller's tax bill — ask what the property will be assessed at once you own it.
Associations can levy special assessments and, in some circumstances, place liens for unpaid dues. Read the documents before you close.
**FHA**, **VA**, and **USDA** loans are federal programs delivered by ordinary lenders, each layering its own occupancy, property-condition, and credit standards on top of the lender's. FHA also maintains condo-approval requirements, which matter enormously in a condo-heavy county. In older Broward neighborhoods, property-condition requirements around the roof, electrical, and plumbing are a frequent reason a deal collapses — get the inspection early.
The short version.
- 01
Buying a home in Broward County is achievable for working households, and the things most likely to go wrong here are insurance, flood, and condo associations — not the mortgage itself.
- 02
Start with a free HUD-approved housing counselor, in English, Spanish, or Creole. They will tell you where your file actually stands and which assistance programs you qualify for, and they will not sell you anything. Then call Central County Community Development Corporation, We Florida Financial, and the credit unions based in Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Miramar, Pembroke Pines, and Sunrise. Ask two questions: can I join, and do you write this kind of loan on this kind of property? If you file with an ITIN, ask directly and keep asking past the first no.
- 03
Get an insurance quote and a flood quote before you make an offer. Judge affordability by the full monthly payment with taxes, insurance, flood, and any association dues — never by the sale price or the seller's tax bill. If you are buying a condo, read the association's budget, reserve study, and recent minutes, and ask whether an assessment is coming.
- 04
Get a written Loan Estimate from at least two lenders and compare them line by line. Document every dollar of your down payment.
Same county, another question.
Business FinancingLoans, lines of credit, and capital for small businesses and contractorsSEE IT IN BROWARD COUNTY →
Personal FinancingPersonal loans, credit building, and ITIN-friendly financing optionsSEE IT IN BROWARD COUNTY →62FL COUNTIES WITH DOORSThe whole stateEvery county in Florida, in this same lane.110 institutions fund homes and repairs inside Florida county lines.OPEN THE STATE →Still don't see your situation?
Ask Iris. She'll explain it the way it should have been explained the first time.