Now that the effects from the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure rule have subsided significantly in the housing market, first-time buyer activity has resumed from the delays caused in the previous months. The AEI International Center on Housing Risk found that the share and volume of first-time homebuyers rose significantly in February 2016 compared to a year earlier.
According to AEI's First-Time Buyer Mortgage Share Index released Monday, first-time buyers accounted for 56 point 7 percent of primary owner-occupied home purchase mortgages with a government guarantee in February 2016. This number is up from 55 point 9 percent last February and up from January's share of 56 point 1 percent.
Bank of America recently announced a new program that cuts the FHA out of the mortgage lending equation with its latest mortgage product, dubbed the Affordable Loan Solution. Karan Kaul, a Research Associate at Urban Institute, recently made the argument that Bank of America's mortgage solution, while promising, is not a substitute for healthy FHA lending.