Tag Archives: First-Time Buyer Mortgage Share Index

"First-time buyers now appear to be making relative gains as high mortgage interest rates disproportionately encourage current homeowners to stay put," said Manny Garcia, Zillow Population Scientist.

A study has found that rising mortgage risk for first-time homebuyers helped them to overcome rising prices. What were the main drivers of this trend?

The American Enterprise Institute's International Center on Housing Risk believes looser credit is the direct result of job market improvements, riskier mortgage lending, and low mortgage rates.

Home prices and risk are being driven up quicker than income by low mortgage rates, an improving labor market, and loose credit standards, but some believe this is not a sustainable approach to homeownership. The American Enterprise Institute's First-Time Buyer Mortgage Share Index found that first-time buyers accounted for 56.4 percent of primary owner-occupied home purchase mortgages with a government guarantee in September 2015, up from last years' total of 54.4 percent.