Public Sees Fewer Barriers to Homeownership, Survey Finds

Obstacles to homeownership dropped to their lowest recorded levels and optimism about home buying is strong, a survey by Fannie Mae, the nation’s largest financier of mortgages, showed Thursday.

Respondents to an annual survey said barriers to owning a home have decreased as the U.S. economy has entered its eighth year of expansion. Perceived barriers dropped to the lowest level since Fannie Mae began its National Housing Survey seven years ago.

“Low interest rates and a strong economy are making Americans more confident that homeownership is within reach for them,” Fannie Mae Chairman and CEO James A. Johnson said. Such conditions make the public “less likely to believe that obstacles [to homeownership] stand in their way.”

Fannie Mae is a private corporation federally chartered to buy mortgages from lenders and package them as securities to be sold in turn to investors, thereby increasing mortgage funding and the availability of loans for low- and moderate-income people.

The survey of 2006 respondents was conducted between May 29 and June 3.

Of those surveyed, 29% cited “not having enough money for a down payment or closing costs” as a major obstacle to homeownership in 1998.

The strength of the economy is bolstering the public’s confidence, which in turn is translating into positive ownership expectations, the report said.