Housing officials in Palm Beach County, Florida, started accepting applications at noon Wednesday for a program that awards up to $100,000 to eligible first-time homebuyers.
The window of opportunity lasted just 24 minutes.
The county closed the online application process at 12:24 p.m. after receiving the 100 applications it sought for the $3 million Home Investment Partnership First-Time Homebuyer Program.
"If we get a high percentage of applications that are incomplete or ineligible, we would consider reopening it," Dorina Jenkins-Gaskin, a director for the county's Department of Housing & Economic Development, told Homes.com.
But even then, she said, the county would prioritize those who already tried to submit applications before the process closed.
Officials don't have enough funding for more than 100 applicants, Jenkins-Gaskin said.
The program is meant to help lower-income residents in a county where the median single-family sale price has soared in the past six years.
In June, the median price for a single-family home in Palm Beach County was $626,000, according to figures released Wednesday by the Broward, Palm Beaches and St. Lucie Realtors trade group. That figure is down 5.2% from June 2024 but still more than 76% higher than year-end 2019.
Palm Beach County has a population of more than 1.58 million, ranking as the third-largest county in the Sunshine State after Miami-Dade and Broward, according to the latest U.S. Census figures.
To be eligible for the homebuyer program, a one-person household couldn't earn more than $65,450 a year, according to the county. The income limit for a two-person household was $74,800; for a three-person household, it was $84,150.
The program was open to people who don't currently own a home and plan to buy a property that costs no more than $568,557. Before applying, county residents must already have had a first mortgage approval from a lender and completed or registered for a homebuyer education course from a certified counseling agency.
Knowing that competition would be fierce, the county held five orientation sessions in the past month to help residents understand what to expect with the application process, according to Jenkins-Gaskin.
"They were pretty much ready to go," she said.