Home buyers need to earn $47,000 more than in 2020

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1. First-time homebuyers made up a record share of agency purchase loans in 2023

First-time homebuyers made up 55% of agency purchase mortgages in 2023, according to Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) data, the highest such share in the 10 years ICE has been tracking the metric.

A record 47% of government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) purchase loans in 2023 came from first-time homebuyers, a number that’s been trending gradually higher throughout the past decade.

2. Zillow: Income needed to comfortably afford a home is up 80% since 2020

The income level needed to comfortably afford a home has increased 80% since January 2020, well above the rise in median incomes, and home shoppers today need to make more than $106,000 in annual income to comfortably afford a home, Zillow says.

In 2020, a household earning $59,000 annually could comfortably afford the monthly mortgage on a typical U.S. home, spending no more than 30% of its income with a 10% down payment. That was below the U.S. median income of about $66,000, meaning more than half of American households had the financial means to afford homeownership.

Now, the roughly $106,500 needed to comfortably afford a typical home is well above what a typical U.S. household earns each year, estimated at about $81,000. “Housing costs have soared over the past four years as drastic hikes in home prices, mortgage rates and rent growth far outpaced wage gains,” Zillow says.

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3. Catch up quick

👏 MBA commends Fannie Mae’s newest step to address buybacks. (MBA)

🏦 NYCB shakes up leadership, takes $2.4B impairment charge. (Banking Dive)

👀 Rocket, Academy Mortgage undergo headcount corrections. (NMN)

👨‍⚖️ Judge recommends $46M in restitution from former Live Well CEO. (BIzSense)

4. Fannie Mae: Seniors want to age in place, but are opposed to extracting equity

Many senior homeowners polled for a Fannie Mae survey said they will not tap their equity to support their retirement income, even though they want to remain in their property.

• Just 15% of respondents would consider using their home's equity for additional funds during retirement, while another 43% said maybe. But 41% declared they would absolutely not use their residence for income.

In 2022, Americans aged 60-plus represented 29% of the adult population and 44% of homeowners. In the next decade, the 60-plus population is forecast by the Census Bureau to increase to 32% of the total adult population. If household formation and ownership rates remain unchanged from 2022 levels, the change in population levels alone would mean the 60-plus population could approach nearly half of all homeowners in the next decade.

5. Loan Factory sued for misusing loan officers' identities to boost traffic and profits

California-based Loan Factory faces a class-action lawsuit led by loan officer Derek Daniel Bobadilla and others, represented by Johnson & Johnson LLP, for allegedly using their identities without consent to attract business.

Filed in the California Superior Court of Santa Clara County, the lawsuit accuses Loan Factory of displaying loan officers' profiles on its website to mislead customers into believing these officers were affiliated with the brokerage.

The plaintiffs seek statutory damages, repayment of unlawfully obtained profits, royalties for the use of their names, and an injunction to prevent Loan Factory from continuing its alleged unlawful practices.

You’re all caught up. See you on Wednesday!

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