Housing Survey: Americans from Various Demographic Groups Dream of Homeownership

According to Fannie Mae, majority of Americans are still hoping that in the near future they can live in their own homes. The National Housing Survey’s latest quarterly report shows that many Americans from different demographic groups still believes that homeownership is better than renting it. They are optimistic that the economic growth will create more jobs, lower interest rates and stabilize house prizes thus enabling them to purchase a house in the future.

The main factors that motivate renters to own a house is the quality and safety of local schools. For most African-Americans and Hispanics homeownership symbolizes success. But they have observed that what makes it difficult to obtain a mortgage are poor credit, complicated process involved, and economic crisis. Another observation that they have is that African-Americans and Hispanics could not get mortgage easily regardless of their income level.

Other factors that play important role in getting a house mortgage are educational level, income stability and credit history. Groups with higher educational levels are more likely to obtain a mortgage compared to those who completed lower levels.

Many Americans are saying that due to lack of home loan information, they lose confidence in owning a home in the future. Because of this negative behavior, the homeownership rate has decreased over the last several years. In addition, the belief that safety is the primary reason why many are longing to have their own homes has dropped to 63% in the last three months of 2011. On the contrary, those with educational attainment and more than sufficient income believe that buying a house is a good and safe investment.

The National Housing Survey, in the last quarter of 2011, conducted interviews among 3,000 Americans. The interview was focused on the Americans attitudes between owning and renting a home, belief on owning a home as a safe investment, financial capacity to purchase a home, assessment on the U.S. support on housing programs and on the overall outlook on the economy. The survey was done by Penn Schoen Berland and Fannie Mae’s combined effort.

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Commercial Mortgages Slowing Down

According to reports last week by Mortgage Bankers Association, despite the credit crisis and recession, loans from commercial real estate have held up better compared to loans from banks and thrifts.

In the previous year, banks and thrifts charged off 0.8% of commercial mortgages and 0.7% of multifamily mortgages as bad debt.

The charge-off rate was almost one-half of the rates for all loans and leases held by banks and thrifts, which is 1.5%.

According to Jamie Woodwell, vice president of the commercial real estate research, for the banking sector or economy as a whole, commercial mortgages have showed to be neither ‘the next shoe to drop’ nor a ‘ticking time bomb’.

At the last part of 2011, commercial loans and multifamily loans by banks and thrifts had a delinquency rate of 3.5%, which is a decrease from the highest rate in quarter three of 2010 of 4.4%. On the other hand, residential mortgages had a delinquency rate of 7.7% in the last part of 2011.

As said by Jim Chynoweth, managing director of CBRE’s Albuquerque, vacancy rates were kept from elevating by the lack of new construction and it came to the extent that there were sudden rises in commercial mortgage default. Moreover, this was said to be the worst of commercial and multifamily mortgage defaults.

Other main investor groups in commercial and multifamily real estate had the following delinquency rates:

From 0.3% in the first half of 2010, only 0.2% of loans by insurance firms were two months or more late on payments.

From 9% in quarter two of 2011, only 8.6% of loans maintained in commercial mortgage-backed securities were a month or more delayed on payments.

From 0.4% in quarter one of 2011, only 0.2% of multifamily loans by Freddie Mac were two months or more late on payments.

From 0.8% in the first half of 2010, only 0.6% of multifamily loans held by Fannie Mae were two months or more delayed on payments.

Check Your Credit Rating Before Getting a Mortgage

Tara Lynn Wagner said that it is very essential for you to determine your credit score before securing a mortgage loan if you want to avoid paying more money.

Most people especially women know their Social Security number, their weight but when you ask them about their credit scores, they are not aware of it.

CEO Amanda Steinberg, founder of Dailyworth.com, said that loans are needed to buy a vehicle or a house because it is quite impossible to obtain them in cash. But in order to get the best term, it is important that consumers should know their credit scores before securing a mortgage. She said that it might cost you to pay tens of thousands dollars more if you do not check your credit rating before securing a mortgage.

To illustrate her point she cited this example. There were two women who wanted to secure a mortgage amounting to $200,000. The first woman was Susie. Susie’s credit score was 740 points. Her high rating qualified Susie to get a 30-year mortgage at 3.9 % interest. She was paying $953 per month. The second woman was Jane. Jane had a credit score of 640 points. She was also granted a 30-year mortgage at 4.75 % and paid $1,043 monthly. The total difference in the payments of two women for 30 years was more or less $35,000.  This is quite big, says Steinberg. The big difference was the result of the credit scores of Susie and Jane.

There are three steps to take before taking a mortgage. First is to check your credit score. Then, if it is excellent maintain it. Finally, if it is not good, do something to improve it.

Steinberg says that aside from paying their dues on time, the consumers have to control their spending habits because the credit companies are checking their spending to determine their credit scores.

She further added that consumers have to spend only about 20% of the available credit or they should not go beyond 90% of the available credit.

Take Advantage of Low FHA Mortgage Rates

In the past week, mortgage rates reached another low record. This is one of the news regarding the terrible economic condition. The current rate on FHA mortgage declined to 3.990% with an annual percentage rate of 5.318%. This is once again another big chance for individuals and families who have existing FHA mortgages and for those who are thinking of getting an FHA mortgage.

If you are one of those with an FHA mortgage in your house, you can take full advantage of the streamline refinance program for your mortgage. This program will help you save extra money from your mortgage payments. Oftentimes, FHA streamline refinances do not ask for a new appraisal that is why the process takes faster than a usual refinance program. If you are paying your mortgage at a rate of at least 4.5%, you can inquire from different mortgage servicers to know the amount of savings you can have when you decide to refinance.

On the other hand, if you do not yet own a home as of this time but are thinking of purchasing one, now may be the best time to go for it. Even without enough funds to put in a down payment, you might be able to obtain a mortgage via the FHA. This type of mortgage may only ask you to pay at least 3.5% of your dream home’s purchase price as your minimum down payment. Because of this, FHA mortgage is popular to many homebuyers. There are also many mortgage servicers these days that are willing to assist you in getting an FHA mortgage especially if you have a good credit standing.

The housing market is offering the best mortgage rates so far. Although this may not be a good sign for the economy, it can benefit existing homeowners and those who have been planning to purchase their own homes but are waiting for the most affordable rates.

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Home mortgages didn’t used to have such a high down payment. Back in the late 2000′s we say the heyday of the 0% down loan. It was not uncommon for people to just put down 2-5%.

But, then all of a sudden things changed. And if you’ve been around in the last 5 years, it’s easy to see why. Does the term Mortgage meltdown ring any bells?

Well, since the subprime loan debacle, and all of the bad loans out there, lending standards have gotten tighter… should I go as far as say waaaay tighter.

I’ve heard of 40% downpayment with a minimum 750 credit score to get the best interest rates.

For the average, however… I’m seeing a 20% downpayment needed.

The Effects of a 20% down payment Requirement from Potential Homebuyers

Future homebuyers may be required to put a 20% down payment according to the newly proposed rules. The purpose of this is to prevent another possible financial breakdown.

The rules that are being proposed are ways to put into effect the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act launched in the U.S Congress in the past year. One of the many rules are to ask for a 20% down payment in order to ensure that the home loans being sold by the banks in the secondary market are safe, said Robert Fletcher, the Ohio Association of Realtor’s executive officer.

Fletcher said that implementing the rule on the 20% down payment will disqualify 60% of potential homebuyers. Since the housing market plays a main role in the economy, removing buyers considered as low risk from the housing market will be a big hindrance to the recovery of the economy, added Fletcher.

In Greater Cincinnati, the average price of houses is at $151,080. With the proposed rules, this will require about $30,216 down payment excluding closing costs. This amount is more than the average price of most brand new cars that consumers can afford.

The purpose of the risk retention requirements like the 20% down payment is to address the challenges in the residential, commercial and loan markets. It seeks to provide a solution to their problems by asking the organizations that are selling securities to maintain an economic interest in the credit risks of their combined and sold assets, according to the rules proposed by the regulating agencies.

Aside from shooing away potential buyers to the housing market, another effect of a 20% down payment requirement on home purchases is that more and more people could not afford to buy a home. It may also cause banks to become less willing to let the consumers take a loan for a more affordable cost. Overall, it will reduce the housing demand, cut house prices and eventually hurt the industry of home building.

On top of the down payment requirement, the proposed rule may also ask the homebuyer to provide a credit history, a proof of income and a documentation showing that the down payment source is valid.

Based on this, you can expect that lending standards are going to remain high for quite some time. If you are looking to buy a house, then you are going to need to make sure you have money to put down, and you will need the credit score to support your purchase.

Could you afford to pay a 10-20% down payment on your home? from CRA NC on Vimeo.