Key Opportunities for Building the Future of Home

From overcoming down payment myths to understanding migration patterns and addressing housing availability challenges, Freddie Mac wants to help the housing ecosystem look at the housing affordability problem from every angle.

Freddie Mac recently released a free eBook, Key Opportunities for Building the Future of Home, to assist housing professionals in helping more borrowers achieve the dream of homeownership. By working with Freddie Mac, Realtors® can create innovative housing solutions to solve borrower and industry challenges and make the dream of home simpler, faster and more affordable.

Many prospective homebuyers find saving for a down payment to be the biggest challenge they must overcome, but their perception of this obstacle may not match reality. The overall average down payment for homebuyers was 13% and 7% for first-time homebuyers, but many people believe borrowers are required to put 20% down on a house. How are buyers affording a down payment? It’s not always their own personal savings. The percentage of respondents from a recent Freddie Mac survey showed the use of savings for a down payment dropped 9% since 2013. Additionally, 23% of respondents reported funding their down payment through a gift or loan from friends or family.

Millennials, who are today’s biggest homebuyers nationwide, are contributing to the economy by their increased desire to be homeowners. However, there are factors impacting housing shortages and availability. Compared with 1980 to 2016 annual averages, construction of single-family homes was down 13% across the country, leading to a lack of inventory. And of that inventory? Much of it is aging.
Nearly 80% of America’s housing inventory is at least 20 years old, and, of those homes, 38% were built before 1970. Adding to the lack of housing is that people are staying in homes later, especially seniors,
resulting in higher homeownership rates for this group relative to previous generations.

How can Realtors® better support homebuyers? Freddie Mac suggests partnering with other professionals in the housing ecosystem, connecting borrowers with housing counselors who can provide guidance and serve as a trusted advisor, leveraging fintech resources to help borrowers build and maintain credit and preparing borrowers for sustainable homeownership with financial literacy and education.

This Freddie Mac Single-Family All For Home^SM Insight is part of their approach to expand perceptions and opportunities within affordable housing. They’re building the future of home through insights, education, mortgage products and business solutions because they believe that issues can only be solved through contributions and perspectives from all parties within the housing ecosystem.

For more insights download Freddie Mac’s eBook: Key Opportunities for Building the Future of Home.