Tight Credit Still a Hurdle for Buyers

With the economy improving and consumer confidence growing, the National Association of REALTORS® expects homes sales to improve this year. However, one potential roadblock to this improvement is the continuation of tight credit standards. Just last month during a presentation at NAR, Dr. Laurie Goodman, the center director for the Housing Finance Policy Center at the Urban Institute, shared her data-driven insights regarding mortgage credit availability trends and issues and their impact on homeownership. Those tight lending standards have an especially deep impact on younger buyers (age 34 and under), which was the largest group of homebuyers in 2014. According to NAR’s 2014 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, almost half of first-time buyers reported the mortgage application and approval process was at least somewhat more difficult than expected.