The City of Boston relies on a housing lottery to randomly determine order of selection of eligible buyers for any homeownership opportunity made available through the 1st Home program.

1st Home Lottery Process

After the Boston Home Center has notified an applicants of their eligibility status for the 1st Home program, they will be invited to attend an open house for any and all 1st Home properties for which they appear qualified. 1st Home housing lotteries are conducted the next business day following an open house, and are not open to the public.

During a housing lottery, names of all eligible applicants are printed on separate sheets of paper of uniform size and placed into a container in the presence of witnesses.

As names are drawn from the container, Boston Home center staff record the name and assign each applicant a number in the order of the drawing. The drawing continues until all names in the lottery have been drawn and recorded.

After the lottery, all participants will receive an email notifying them of the results of the lottery, including their numeric rank, and detailing next steps.

1st Home Resales

When a 1st Home property is resold, the owner may choose to market the home through a private broker or through the 1st Home program. If they chose to work with the City, the Boston Home Center will provide free marketing for the property and conduct a 1st Home lottery to determine a new, eligible buyer.

The Boston Home Center will notify qualified applicants of resale opportunities as they are made available. Qualified applicants will be required to attend an open house for any property in which they are interested. Following the open house, the Boston Home Center will work with interested applicants in the order of their lottery number until a qualified new buyer is identified.

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