After facing tighter credit standards and higher housing prices, homebuyers now face skyrocketing down payments – biggest in at least two decades.
According to ATTOM Data Solutions, the average down payment for a single-family mortgage was $20,775 in the Q3 – the highest amount based on records going back to 2000. Such amount was a 69% increase from $12,325 of last year.
When record-low mortgage rates kicked the housing boom into a higher gear, the down payment required skyrocketed.
Homebuyers now have to put up 6.6% of the median sale price of homes financed in the current quarter, which is a 4.7% increase from last year – the highest level recorded since 2018. Median Q3 loan amounts were $275,500, which were the highest since 2000, and increased 24% from the same period last year.
A source from ATTOM, as reported by Bloomberg, has blamed the increasing down payments to increasingly rigorous credit standards.
