z*****x
发帖数: 2370 | 1 首付增加，对房价有下降的压力。关闭两房，对利率有上升的压力。美国也打压房事，
真是吃饱了撑得了。。。
The down payments demanded by banks to buy homes have ballooned since the
housing bust, forcing many people to rethink what they can afford and
potentially shrinking the pool of eligible buyers.
WSJ's Mitra Kalita reports banks are requiring prospective new home buyers
to come up more cash for down payments. In nine U.S. cities, the median down
payment is 22%.
As housing prices drop, mortgage lenders are requiring larger downpayments
on homes. Kelsey Hubbard talks to WSJ's Mitra Kalita about what the changes
mean for consumers.
Last week, the Obama administration called for gradually raising down
payments to a minimum of 10% on conventional loans, meaning those that can
be bought or guaranteed by mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And
mortgage data show that private lenders are already pushing sharply higher
the required down payments, mainly to mitigate their risk as home prices
continue to fall.
The median down payment in nine major U.S. cities rose to 22% last year on
properties purchased through conventional mortgages, according to an
analysis for The Wall Street Journal by real-estate portal Zillow.com. That
percentage doubled in three years and represents the highest median down
payment since the data were first tracked in 1997.
The move to force home buyers to lay out more cash is driven mostly by banks
, who have found that larger down payments discourage delinquencies by
increasing the buyers' exposure to loss and reducing the impact of declining
prices. Many home buyers placed little, if anything, down during the boom.
A 2009 Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis study concluded buyers who made
smaller down payments were more likely to default during "unfavorable
economic circumstances, such as a housing market slowdown or job loss."
Higher borrowing costs and heftier down payments could send housing prices
falling further. Last week, 30-year fixed mortgage rates rose to 5.05%,
their highest level since April. "If there is a scenario where the
government talks about raising down payments to 20% on conventional loans,
you would absolutely crush the housing market," said Peter Norden, chief
executive of Real Estate Mortgage Network Inc., an Edison, N.J., brokerage.
For now, borrowers who can't afford such amounts are flocking to alternative
programs, such as loans for veterans or those backed by the Federal Housing
Administration, creating a parallel—and growing—nonconventional mortgage
market for riskier borrowers and those who don't qualify for conventional
loans.
FHA-backed mortgages, which require 3.5% up front, made up about half of
loans for home purchases last year, according to housing-research firm
Zelman & Associates, but borrowers often pay higher interest rates and must
pay private mortgage insurance, often driving their monthly payments higher.
"There's no question that the tightening of criteria unquestionably prices
households out of the market," said Zillow economist Stan Humphries. "The
middle ground buyer is the one having to fight to get a conventional
mortgage."
Nikki Lavoie is among them. Six years ago, she and her then-husband bought
their first home in Middletown, Del., through a veteran's loan, and have
very little equity in the property. Recently divorced, Ms. Lavoie expects to
make a small profit on the sale of the four-bedroom home, now under
contract.
That leaves her with a 5% down payment for a town house she plans to buy and
share with her 14-month-old daughter. Once, that would have been enough.
"A conventional loan…unless I had 20%, that is not even an option for me,"
said Ms. Lavoie, a 29-year-old who works for Delaware state government.
Because the town house is in a rural area, Ms. Lavoie qualified for a United
States Department of Agriculture loan, which requires no money down. She is
saving what would have been her down payment for appliances and furniture.
Higher Hurdle
Home buyers are paying a bigger part of the total in cash
The median down payment hovered around 20% in the late 1990s and began to
creep downward in 2001 in the nine cities Zillow analyzed: Chicago; Stockton
, Calif.; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; Miami-Fort Lauderdale; Phoenix; San Diego;
San Francisco; and Tampa, Fla.
It fell as low as 4% in the fourth quarter of 2006, and in some markets came
close to zero. Economists say it is no coincidence that those are the same
markets sinking deeper underwater, meaning the value of homes is less than
the debt owed on them.
The mortgage industry has long grappled with the question of how much of a
down payment is enough. As home prices rose at faster rates than Americans'
incomes in recent decades, banks began to accept lower down payments to
create greater affordability and spur home-buying.
Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair told an industry
conference last month she supported minimum 20% down payments.
Mr. Norden, of the Real Estate Mortgage Network, said a better solution
would be to demand high down payments from riskier borrowers seeking
conventional loans, while allowing those with better credit histories to
qualify with a lower amount, such as 10%, down.
For banks, "the good news is lower leverage means less risk. The bad news:
lower leverage means less activity," said David Berson, chief economist of
the PMI Group. "A balance between the two is best."
Another byproduct of higher down payments will be a reduction in what some
families can afford—or a rethinking of whether they should buy at all, said
John Courson, president and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association.
"Many people will turn to the multifamily market," he said. "Or if you don't
have whatever is deemed to be the appropriate down payment, the alternative
is to be a renter while you accumulate that. You can't put a formula down
that is going to fit every borrower's profile." | n*********e
发帖数: 25274 | 2 房子,这东东,本来就是少数人人才能affordable的.
很多华人最近不要命地四处抢房的风气,很不理智... |
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