Median down payment hits new high in third quarter

The median down payment for single-family homes purchased with financing has reached a new high in the third quarter, according to Attom Data Solutions.

The median down payment reached $20,000 for homes purchased in the third quarter, up from $14,400 during the same period last year and from $18,161 in the previous quarter.

The average $20,000 down payment was 7.6% of the median sales price of $263,000, which grew from 6.1% from the previous year and from 7.1% quarter-over-quarter.

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"Buying a home has become a full-contact sport in many markets across the country, and buyers with the beefiest down payments, not to mention all-cash buyers, are often able to muscle out those with scrawnier savings," said Daren Blomquist, senior vice president of Attom, in press release.

"Despite the increasingly competitive nature of home buying, the number of residential property purchase loans nationwide increased to a 10-year high in the third quarter," he continued.

Almost 2.4 million loans secured by residential property were originated in the third quarter, an increase of 17% from the previous quarter but still down 5% from the previous year.

By product type, nearly 1.1 million of the loans were purchase loans, up 8% quarter-over-quarter and 7% from a year ago to the highest level since the third quarter of 2007.

And 981,773 of these 2.4 million were refinance loans, a rise of 28% from the previous quarter but still down 19% year-over-year.

A total of 393,602 home equity lines of credit secured by residential property were originated in the third quarter, up 12% annually and 19% from the second quarter of 2017.

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Down payments Purchase Refinance Home prices Real estate Attom Data Solutions
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