Greenbook: A Local Guide to Chesapeake Living - Issue 5 | Page 21

Administration’s plan to reduce
annual mortgage insurance
premiums likely will have a
positive impact on springing
first-time buyers into action.
FHA, which offers loans with
down payments as low as 3.5 percent, decreased its insurance premiums on Jan. 26 from 1.35 percent to
0.85 percent.

greenbook
J. Melvin Premier properties

“REALTORS® support
responsible lending to qualified
borrowers and the move to lower
premiums will enable more buyers
to enter the market while
continuing to protect taxpayers
from the risky lending practices
that led to the housing crash,” Polychron said in a statement.
Young couples and singles in
their late 20s and early 30s
are making a belated entry
into the home-buying market,
confirms several recent
housing reports. Rising
rents are prompting more
millennials to move toward
home ownership, along with
an extra push from mortgage
rates being in the mid-3
percent range, the
government’s recent efforts to
ease credit requirements for
a loan, and moderating home
prices that are helping to
improve housing
affordability.
A recent monthly poll of
more than 2,000 real estate
professionals nationwide
showed higher reports of
first-time buyer activity much
earlier than is typical, according to the Campbell/Inside

Mortgage Finance
HousingPulse Tracking Survey.
The survey showed that first-time
homebuyers accounted for about 36
percent of overall home
purchases in December.

Jonathan Smoke, chief economist
realtor.com®, has called 2015 the
“year of the millennial” in real
estate.

“Millennials are at a critical
demographic tipping point where
their sheer numbers will naturally
drive demand for more home sales,”
The real estate brokerage Redfin
said that surveys of its agents have he notes in recent housing commenrecently shown first-time buyers ac- tary at realtor.com®.
counting for 57 percent of its home
He says that home sellers should be
tours – its highest rate recorded in
encouraged, particularly those who
recent years. What’s more, homeown affordable homes and
purchase education class requests
are looking for a long-overdue
– which typically come from firsttime buyers – surged 27 percent in upgrade. With the move by
many lenders recently to permit
January year-over-year.
smaller down payments on home
purchases, more millennials will
The National Association of
likely make a move and that means
REALTORS® reported that
home sellers “who’ve been sitting
first-time buyers comprised
on equity in entry-level homes can
29% of existing-home sales in
December, up from 27% a year ago. finally upgrade to bigger homes and
retirement homes.”
NAR President Chris Polychron
says the Federal Housing

greenbook | spring 2015

buying & selling 101

DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 04, 2015

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