Fannie Mae-No Politics (FNMA)

[Robert from yahoo bd]

For Many Home Buyers, a 5% Down Payment Isn't Enough; Half of mortgage borrowers put down at least 20% in April. That is locking many people out of homeownership. (Todays WSJ).

"Half of existing-home buyers in April who used mortgages put at least 20% down, according to a National Association of Realtors survey. In 10 years of record-keeping, that percentage has hit or exceeded 50% three times, and all have been since last fall. A quarter of existing-home buyers in April paid cash, the highest level since 2017 , NAR said.

Home prices are surging. The median existing-home price rose 19% from a year earlier to $341,600 in April, a record high, according to NAR. That is largely because there aren't enough homes on the market to meet demand.

Bigger down payments can cushion the housing market in a downturn. In the 2007-09 recession, home buyers who had made tiny down payments were quickly underwater as soon as home prices started to fall.

Briana Stansbury, who works at a community college in Portland, Ore., recently made an offer on a two-bedroom house. She used a 5%-down loan program that Freddie Mac offers for first-time buyers, and she agreed to go through with the purchase even if the appraisal came in as much as $10,000 below her purchase price of $371,500.

That put Ms. Stansbury at risk of having to come up with extra cash in a hurry, but she had lost out on bids for other houses and thought it would give her a leg up.

Ms. Stansbury lost sleep while she waited for the appraisal. But it came back above the sale price, and she closed on the house in May."