Leon County, Florida: A Local Guide for Home Buyers and Homeowners

Tallahassee

The state capitol stands on one of the city’s highest hills, and the Greek Revival Old Capitol, finished in 1845, is now a museum in front of the 1977 high-rise Capitol.

Lake Jackson, about 6.2 square miles, and Lake Lafayette are the city’s two large lake basins, and Tallahassee has nine officially designated canopy roads.

Bradfordville

Bradfordville sits about 8 miles north of Tallahassee at US 319 and Bannerman/Bradfordville Road, just south of the Georgia line. It’s mostly a commercial area at the tip of the Killearn Lakes Plantation development, and it has kept a one-room schoolhouse built between 1884 and 1892.

Woodville

Woodville is a census-designated place just south of Tallahassee, about six miles from the Natural Bridge. There the St. Marks River drops into a sinkhole and comes back up about a quarter mile downstream, and the Battle of Natural Bridge was fought nearby in 1865.

Chaires

Chaires is centered where Chaires Cross Road (CR 1543) meets Capitola Road (CR 1540), east of Tallahassee and northeast of Lake Lafayette. The Chaires-Capitola Community Park has tennis, basketball and baseball facilities.

Fort Braden

Fort Braden lies about 18 miles southwest of Tallahassee on State Road 20, near Lake Talquin. It takes its name from a Second Seminole War fort set up in 1839.

Miccosukee

Miccosukee spreads over rolling hills in northeastern Leon County around County Roads 59 and 151. Lake Miccosukee, large and swampy, forms its eastern edge, with a public boat launch at Reeves Landing, and the 1894 Concord School building is now part of a county park.

Leon County SHIP Down Payment Assistance

Leon County lends first-time buyers a deferred, 0% second mortgage that’s forgiven at the end of its term if you keep it in good standing, with a longer term on a land trust home. Newly built, rehabbed and land trust homes can qualify for more help than an existing house. You put a little of your own money in, there’s a cap on liquid assets, and a HUD-approved homebuyer class is required.

The home has to be in unincorporated Leon County and can’t sit in the 100-year floodplain. County Housing Services: (850) 606-1900 or 850-606-5300.

The county’s SHIP award amounts and price cap come from a plan it rewrites every few years, and each year’s money is announced in a funding notice. Buying in Chaires, Woodville or Fort Braden? Call 888-601-8344 and we’ll ask Leon County Housing Services what this round pays and whether it still has dollars before you put in an offer.

Official program page

City of Tallahassee Down Payment Assistance

The city helps with down payment and closing costs through the Tallahassee Lenders’ Consortium, with the amount based on need. It’s for households under the city’s income limit, and you take TLC’s homebuyer class first. TLC is at 850-222-6609 and the city Housing Division at 850-891-6566.

The city’s income limits move every year and its housing dollars are set in each budget. Call 888-601-8344 and we’ll check with TLC what the program covers for a house inside city limits, then line up your pre-approval alongside TLC’s class.

Official program page

Community Land Trust and New Home Infill

Tallahassee’s Community Land Trust sells you the house and leases you the land, for income-qualified buyers. The New Home Infill Program helps low and moderate income buyers purchase newly built homes on infill lots, and city down payment help can be combined with either.

Which land trust and infill homes are on the market changes month to month. Call or text us at 954-816-8820 and we’ll ask the city’s Housing Division what’s for sale and what it would cost you per month.

Official program page

Florida Hometown Heroes (statewide)

Florida Housing’s Hometown Heroes pairs a 30-year fixed first mortgage with a 0% down payment and closing cost second. There’s no monthly payment, and it’s deferred rather than forgiven: you repay it when you sell, refinance or pay off the home, or stop living in it. It works on a home anywhere in Leon, inside Tallahassee or out.

At least one buyer must work full time for a Florida-based employer in health care, K-12 schools, first response, public safety, the courts or licensed child care, so a nurse at TMH or Capital Regional, a Leon County Schools teacher or a court clerk can qualify. On the military side, active duty qualifies with any employer, and veterans, Reserve and National Guard members qualify working full time for any employer based in Florida. Remote workers don’t qualify.

You get Florida Housing assistance once in a lifetime, and only through a participating lender or broker. Call 888-601-8344 before you choose a lender or a house in Tallahassee, and we’ll confirm your job counts and that funds can be reserved for the purchase.

Official program page

FL Assist and HFA Preferred (statewide)

FL Assist is a 0% deferred second that rides with Florida Housing’s first mortgage, with no monthly payment; you repay it when you sell, refinance, transfer the home or move out. FL HLP is a separate down payment second with a small fixed payment over 30 years. If Conventional suits you better, HFA Advantage PLUS sets a second behind a Freddie Mac first and forgives it across 5 years while the home stays your residence.

Florida Housing’s county limits and funding change during the year. Call us at 888-601-8344 and we’ll compare these with the county and city money to see which gets you to a Leon County closing table with less cash.

Official program page

Schools and colleges

Public schools are run by Leon County Schools, with its district office at 2757 West Pensacola Street (850-487-7100). Check school assignment for a specific address with the district before you buy.

Florida State University, Florida A&M University and Tallahassee State College, formerly Tallahassee Community College, are all here.

Getting around

Interstate 10 runs across the north side of Tallahassee. US 27 is Monroe Street through downtown, US 90 runs east and west, US 319 runs north and south on the east side, and State Roads 20, 61 and 363 fill in. StarMetro runs the city buses.

Tallahassee International Airport (TLH), at 3300 Capital Circle SW, is run by the City of Tallahassee Aviation Department and has commercial airline service. There’s no passenger rail: Amtrak’s Sunset Limited stopped coming after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and hasn’t returned.

Maclay Gardens State Park

Alfred B. Maclay Gardens is a 28-acre historic ornamental garden with a brick walkway, a reflection pool and a walled garden planted with hundreds of camellias and azaleas.

St. Marks rail-trail

The Tallahassee-St. Marks Historic Railroad State Trail runs 16 paved miles from town to the coast at St. Marks. It was the first paved rail-trail in Florida’s greenways system, and the railroad under it ran from 1836 to 1983, longer than any other in Florida.

Lake Jackson Mounds

Lake Jackson Mounds Archaeological State Park protects six of seven known earthen temple mounds from the Fort Walton period (1000 to 1450 A.D.), the largest known ceremonial complex of that period in North Florida. The lake itself has been part of an aquatic preserve since 1973.

Apalachicola National Forest

Florida’s largest national forest, about 633,000 acres set aside in 1936, reaches into southern Leon County. The Leon Sinks Geological Area is part of it.

Springtime Tallahassee

Springtime Tallahassee, the city’s signature spring festival, has been held every April since 1967, with a Grand Parade and Jubilee.

Game day

The Florida State Seminoles of the ACC play at Doak Campbell Stadium, and the Florida A&M Rattlers of the SWAC play at Bragg Memorial Stadium.

Tallahassee Museum

The Tallahassee Museum, at 3945 Museum Drive, covers 52 acres with native wildlife exhibits, the 1880s Big Bend Farm and the Tree-To-Tree Adventures ziplines.

History you can walk through

Mission San Luis de Apalachee is a 17th-century Spanish mission site the state has partly rebuilt. The Museum of Florida History, the Knott House Museum, Goodwood Museum & Gardens, the Museum of Fine Arts at FSU and the Tallahassee Automobile Museum are also in town.

Buying a home

Most of our Leon County buyers go FHA: 3.5% down, flexible credit guidelines, and it pairs with the SHIP, city and Florida Housing programs above. For eligible veterans we write VA loans with nothing down, and we handle Conventional loans, Hometown Heroes and FHA 100% financing too.

AAA Capital Funding has been a licensed Florida mortgage broker since 1997 and lends in all 67 counties statewide, Leon included, so a move from Tallahassee to anywhere else in Florida stays with us. We shop your loan with multiple wholesale lenders and give you a number to shop with before you tour houses off Monroe Street or Capital Circle.

Refinancing the home you have

A refinance can lower your monthly payment, pull cash out for a new roof or storm repairs, pay off higher-interest debt, or buy out a co-owner’s share of the house.

Call 888-601-8344 and we’ll show you your Leon County payment beside the new one, plus the cash you’d take out and what it costs to close.