With home prices soaring out of reach and rates hot, Americans are doing whatever they can to lower their monthly payments, according to a series of new reports from Redfin.
The typical monthly housing payment hit a record high of $2,721 in the four weeks ending March 24, up 10% YOY.
A combination of prices and rates is keeping homeownership unaffordable for the average family, which earns $30,000 less per year than necessary to comfortably purchase a house.
First-time buyers have it even worse thanks to boiling competition for low-priced homes. To afford a starter home, they need to earn almost twice as much as before the pandemic.
With these pressures on Americans’ wallets, buyers are looking for other ways…
FHA borrowers with loanDepot can now put zero down upfront with its new “accessZERO” program.
The program offers up to 5% of a home’s purchase price in down payment assistance structured as a 10-year fully amortized repayable second mortgage. It is geared towards buyers who are struggling with saving for a down payment as home prices soar.
Down payments by percentage have fallen in 2023 after inflating during the pandemic buying boom when buyers used them to outbid their competition. This is partly because FHA and VA loans, which allow borrowers to pay less upfront, have gained traction as homebuying gets more expensive.
As inflation runs rampant and home prices remain high, many Americans have struggled to save for a…
First-time homebuyers are fewer and older than ever before, according to new data from the National Association of Realtors. NAR’s 2022 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers found that the share of first-time homebuyers fell to its lowest point in the data’s history, while their median age rose to 36 years old, the highest point. NAR has been compiling this data since 1981. First-timers made up only 26% of all buyers, down from 34% last year. Their median age rose from 33 a year ago, while the typical repeat homebuyer’s age rose from 56 to 59, also a record high. The median expected home tenure for a first-time buyer was 18 years, yet another record and up 8 years since…
Buyers are paying record-high down payments thanks to the combination of soaring prices and high competition, but they may see a reprieve soon, according to new data from Redfin. The typical U.S. mortgage borrower in July put down $62,500, up 13.6% YOY and nearly twice the growth in home sales prices. It’s also nearly double the median $32,917 down payment from July 2019, before the pandemic. Down payments have fallen slightly since peaking at $66,000 in May and June, due in part to the cooling market. Just under 59% of buyers who used a mortgage had a 10%-plus down payment, up from 57.5% a year ago but down from a peak of 60.5% in May. “Homebuyers don’t need to make…
A new study by LendingTree found that the average down payment on homes across 50 major U.S. metros has reached $46,283. As interest rates fell to historic lows and the housing market sizzled, high home prices led to larger down payments. Analysts at LendingTree calculated median down payments in the largest 50 U.S. metros and compared how expensive they were relative to their median annual household incomes. “An average down payment on a home costs at least $28,000 in each of the nation’s 50 largest metros,” they reported. In some markets it was almost four times that number. The most expensive cities peaked at over $100,000. San Jose had an average of $115,138 down, which amounts to 88% of the…
