Over a quarter of homeowners wish they knew other mortgage options
Homeownership remains part of the American dream, but owners wish they could go back and change some things, including the type of mortgages they chose.
Three in five (59%) homeowners said that owning a home is part of their American Dream and nearly a third (28%) felt financially secure after buying one, according to Freedom Debt Relief’s new survey.
However, 29% of the 1,028 homeowners surveyed said homeownership stressed them out. For 26% who would rather rent, the cost of owning a home was too much of a burden.
Of those who opted to purchase a home, 52% regret their mortgage, saying the monthly payment is too high. Forty-one percent said they were not aware of all their mortgage options.
The report showed that millennial (58%) and Gen-Z (52%) homeowners were more likely to think that their mortgage payments and interest rates were too high. Millennials (47%) and Gen-Xers (41%) said they were uninformed of all the mortgage options. Two-thirds (67%) of millennial and Gen-X (62%) homeowners also said that closing their mortgage loans left them with no savings.
Over a third (37%) of homeowners put an average of 20-29% of their monthly income toward their mortgage payments, while three in 10 set aside 30-49% of their monthly income to pay for their monthly mortgage.
The monthly mortgage cost was the most important in the home-buying process, according to 96% of homeowners. The community or neighborhood (92%), crime rate (91%), house appreciation potential (85%), commute to work (79%), school district (74%), and walkability (50%) followed.
