Home buyers plunked down more cash in the second quarter, a positive sign for the housing market. Down payments were largest in the Aloha State.
During the three months ended June 30, the average down payment on a U.S. home purchase transaction came in at 17.28 percent.
Americans dug deeper into their pockets than in the first quarter of this year, when the average down payment was 15.78 percent.
LendingTree outlined the statistics in its Down Payment Affordability report.
The averages were based on purchase financing transactions with 30-year, fixed-rate, conventional mortgages.
On a dollar basis, average down payments rose to $37,576 in the second quarter from $34,733.
“We’ve seen an overall downward trend in down payments over the past 18 months, but appreciating home prices and pent-up demand has brought borrowers back into the housing market with more funds available for a down payment,” LendingTree Chief Executive Officer Doug Lebda said in the report.
Lebda noted that rising down payments are a positive sign for the housing market.
Mortgage technology service provider Ellie Mae Inc. recently reported that the average loan-to-value ratios on closed conventional purchase transactions has remained at 80 percent each month from March 2013 through August 2014 except for in March of this year, when it rose to 81 percent.
By state, average down payments were highest in Hawaii: 20.79 percent.
Next was New Jersey, where borrowers put down an average of 20.06 percent. After that was 19.59 percent in New York, 19.39 percent in California and 18.94 percent in Connecticut.
Lebda explained, “In certain markets, a competitive real estate environment may be forcing some homebuyers to put more money down in order to strengthen their offers.”
The lowest down payments were in West Virginia, where the average was 14.42 percent.
With a 14.52 percent average, Arkansas was second-lowest. No. 3 Nebraska had an average of 14.73 percent, then 14.84 percent in Mississippi and 15.13 percent in South Dakota.
