Rises in the amount of low down payment loans and private mortgage insurance due to tight affordability led to the most first-time homebuyers since 2006, according to Genworth Mortgage Insurance.
"Low down payment mortgages — and conventional loans with private mortgage insurance, in particular — play a very important role in supporting first-time homebuyers, and even more so in a market with declining affordability. The private mortgage insurance industry now serves twice as many first-time homebuyers compared to 2014," Tian Liu, Genworth's chief economist, said in a press release.
Overall, 2.07 million first-time buyers bought single-family homes in 2018, edging up less than 1% from the year prior. They accounted for around 38% of total 2018 sales, a percentage that's been on the rise since 2011.
"The first-time homebuyer market once again outperformed the broader housing market, recording its best purchase year since 2006 and regaining its pre-housing crisis level," Liu said. "At the same time, first-time homebuyers are not immune to declining affordability, as their number declined nationally and in 35 states in Q4. First-time homebuyers responded to declining affordability by taking a wait-and-see approach and opportunistically looking for lower-priced properties."
Four states had double-digit year-over-year jumps in first-time buyers. South Dakota was first with a 19.5% increase, then New Mexico's 18.6%, Nebraska's 16.1% and West Virginia's 13% followed. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the biggest annual declines in first-time buyers were in Alaska, at 10.8%, North Dakota, at 9.5%, and Michigan, at 9%.
