We knew it was coming, but the looks on the faces of the agents in the office as the disappearance of seller assisted down payments sunk in varied from frustration to morose.  So many of us work with first time home buyers in this challenging Phoenix market that comments like “could they make it any harder?” circulated through the office.  The sad reality is that they could and may.  Hopefully there will be new programs coming down the pipe to replace seller assisted down payments, but until they do we will have to look at bond money and other means of assisting our clients who so often don’t have all the funds needed to buy a home.

 

It brings up a point made by one agent in our office who came out of the financial industry, should they even be buying a home if they don’t have the down payment?  It is a valid question.  It used to be that families saved to buy a home with a standard 20% down payment required to make such a purchase.  There was pride in the American Dream.  It meant something to finally attain homeownership.  People did not walk away so easily from an asset they had worked so hard to gain. 

 

Has the American Dream been diminished by making it more accessible to people?  I don’t know the answer to that question.  In many ways I think the question and point he was trying to make was true – homeownership is a privilege and maybe to truly appreciate it and its value buyers need to earn it.  Not through 100% financing programs, not through seller paid closing costs, but through the sweat on their brow, the sacrifices they made to save the money to do it, and the feeling of pride once felt at achieving something. 

 

When you make things easy, no matter what it is, people tend to discount the value.  If it is easy, anyone can have it.  If it is easy, there is no sense of accomplishment.  If it is easy, it is disposable.  By opening up homeownership to so many did we make it a disposable commodity that people just took for granted without truly caring anymore. 

 

Is it time to reinvent the American Dream?  Is it time for the opportunity to own a home to truly be an opportunity that people take pride in again?  Is it time?  You tell me…