Median, Average Down Payments at Record Highs
Median and average down payments for U.S. homes purchased in the third quarter reached record highs, said ATTOM Data Solutions, Irvine, Calif.
The company’s third quarter U.S. Residential Property Loan Origination Report said the median down payment for single family homes and condos purchased with financing rose to $20,000, up from $18,161 in the previous quarter and up from $14,400 a year ago to the highest level as far back as data is available (Q1 2000).
The average down payment, $76,645, also represented a record.
The report said the average down payment of $20,000 represented 7.6 percent of the median sales price of $263,000 for financed home purchases in the third quarter, up from 7.1 percent in the previous quarter and up from 6.1 percent a year ago to the highest level since Q3 2013. In 12 of 99 metro areas surveyed, the median down payment topped $50,000.
“Buying a home has become a full-contact sport in many markets across the country, and buyers with the beefiest down payments–not to mention all-cash buyers–are often able to muscle out those with scrawnier savings,” said Daren Blomquist, senior vice president with ATTOM Data Solutions. “Despite the increasingly competitive nature of home buying, the number of residential property purchase loans nationwide increased to a 10-year high in the third quarter.”
The median down payment was more than $50,000 in 12 metros, led by San Jose Calif. ($247,000); San Francisco ($170,000); Los Angeles ($118,000); Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, Calif. ($105,000); and Boulder, Colo. ($99,900). Other markets were San Diego; New York; Fort Collins, Colo.; Bridgeport, Conn.; Boston; Seattle; and Naples, Fla.
ATTOM said nearly 2.4 million loans (2,386,518) secured by residential property originated in the third quarter, up 17 percent from the previous quarter but still down 5 percent from a year ago. Nearly 1.1 million were purchase loans (1,011,144), up 8 percent from the previous quarter and up 7 percent from a year ago to the highest level since Q3 2007. The report said 981,773 refinance loans secured by residential property were originated in the third quarter, up 28 percent from the previous quarter but still down 19 percent from a year ago. HELOCs represented 393,602 originations in the third quarter, up 19 percent from the previous quarter and up 12 percent from a year ago to the highest level since Q2 2008.
The report also found 23.4 percent of all purchase loan originations on single-family homes in the third quarter involved co-borrowers, up from 22.8 percent in the previous quarter and up from 21.1 percent a year ago.
Loans backed by FHA accounted for 12.9 percent of all residential property loans originated in the third quarter, down from 13.6 percent in the previous quarter and down from 13.2 percent a year ago. Loans backed by the Department of Veterans Affairs accounted for 6.6 percent of all residential property loans originated in the third quarter, up from 6.5 percent in the previous quarter but down from 7.5 percent a year ago.
