The state of Oregon has established a savings account that allows its residents tax write offs for deposits made throughout the year. The cash from this account can be used to cover out of pocket expenses when buying a home. Expenses include down payment, closing costs, appraisal costs, loan origination fees, realtor fees, etc.
The program is pretty simple. You need to find a bank first that offers this account. Once opened, you can save as you go and write off up to $5k of contributions on your state taxes. This can be done year over year for a maximum of 10 years. The length of time in which you use this account is up to you, but the tax benefits will stop after the 10 year mark.
I recommend this account for any Oregon resident who intends to purchase t
heir first home in the coming future and has the ability to make contributions (large or small) over the year.
If you someone wants to maximize this account and write off $5k each year, I encourage you to think in terms of daily allotments. $5k per year is $13.69 per day.
The plan of saving $13.69 per day can be leveraged with your tax return year over year to lower the amount of out of pocket cash needed to hit the $5k mark annually.
The optimal way to leverage and compound this account:
Make a daily, weekly, or monthly plan for depositing into this account to hit the $5k.
Write that $5k off on your annual state taxes.
Deposit the return from those refunded taxes (now you set aside less cash in year 2 to hit the $5k mark)
Repeat this process year over year.
For every consecutive year that you do this, less out of pocket cash will need to be saved in order to maximize the account.
You can set this up to get a head start. If the right opportunity comes up to buy during the process, then go for it.