The Appeal of 3.5% Down: FHA Mortgages Increase in Popularity
1
• • July 10, 2009, 2:30 PM ET The Appeal of 3.5% Down: FHA Mortgages Increase in Popularity Uncle Sam keeps getting more popular. Last month, the share of applications for government-insured mortgages reached its highest level since November 1990, with government-insured loans accounting for nearly 36% of all mortgage applications, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Most of those loans are made by the Federal Housing Administration, a New Deal-era agency that doesn’t actually make loans but insures lenders against losses. Other government-insured loans are offered by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. In May, the government-insured share of mortgage applications stood at around 26%, down slightly from 27% in June 2008. Just four years ago, the government-insured share of applications stood at less than 6%. Back then, the proliferation of no-money- down loans made increasingly irrelevant the FHA, which requires down payments of at least 3.5%. Today, that’s nearly impossible to find in the private market, and over the past two years, the FHA has watched its market share ramp up dramatically. This summer, the agency’s market share of mortgage applications has increased as fewer folks look to refinance or get a loan elsewhere as mortgage rates rise. The actual number of FHA loans doesn’t have to increase for its market share to go up. But any surge in demand for FHA loans shouldn’t come as a surprise, especially when considering recent surveys that show home buyers still believe they shouldn’t have to sink large down payments into home purchases. A recent survey of buyer attitudes by Zillow.com found that more than one-third of buyers don’t plan to make down payments larger than 10%, while nearly one-fifth of buyers don’t plan to put any money down. Only 22% of buyers said they planned to make down payments that exceeds 20%. Copyright 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800- 843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com
-
Upload
susan-barney -
Category
Documents
-
view
213 -
download
1
description
Uncle Sam keeps getting more popular. Last month, the share of applications for government-insured mortgages reached its highest level since November 1990, with government-insured loans accounting for nearly 36% of all mortgage applications, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Transcript of The Appeal of 3.5% Down: FHA Mortgages Increase in Popularity
•
• July 10, 2009, 2:30 PM ET
The Appeal of 3.5% Down: FHA Mortgages Increase in Popularity
Uncle Sam keeps getting more popular. Last month, the share of applications for government-insured mortgages reached its highest level since November 1990, with government-insured loans accounting for nearly 36% of all mortgage applications, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Most of those loans are made by the Federal Housing Administration, a New Deal-era agency that doesn’t actually make loans but insures lenders against losses. Other government-insured loans are offered by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs.
In May, the government-insured share of mortgage applications stood at around 26%, down slightly from 27% in June 2008. Just four years ago, the government-insured share of applications stood at less than 6%. Back then, the proliferation of no-money-down loans made increasingly irrelevant the FHA, which requires down payments of at least 3.5%. Today, that’s nearly impossible to find in the private market, and over the past two years, the FHA has watched its market share ramp up dramatically.
This summer, the agency’s market share of mortgage applications has increased as fewer folks look to refinance or get a loan elsewhere as mortgage rates rise. The actual number of FHA loans doesn’t have to increase for its market share to go up.
But any surge in demand for FHA loans shouldn’t come as a surprise, especially when considering recent surveys that show home buyers still believe they shouldn’t have to sink large down payments into home purchases. A recent survey of buyer attitudes by Zillow.com found that more than one-third of buyers don’t plan to make down payments larger than 10%, while nearly one-fifth of buyers don’t plan to put any money down. Only 22% of buyers said they planned to make down payments that exceeds 20%.
Copyright 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved
This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit
www.djreprints.com
