GMAC, CARAVAN release homeownership survey results
By MortgageDaily.com staff
4/11/2005

A recent survey indicates consumers earning more than $75,000 a year are more confident about maintaining a mortgage than those making less than $75,000.

The telephone survey of 1,000 nationwide households conducted between Jan. 20 and 23 by GMAC Mortgage and CARAVAN Opinion Research Corp. looked at obstacles to buying a home.

The biggest obstacle, cited by 37% of the respondents, was finding the right house for their needs.

The next biggest obstacle, lack of financial security, was cited by 24 percent of all respondents, followed by down payment -- cited by 23 percent.

But when just looking at consumers ages 25 to 34, the numbers changed -- with 36 percent indicating saving for a down payment was the biggest obstacle and 39% citing achieving financial security as the greatest hindrance to owning a home, according to the survey.

GMAC, which operates GMAC Real Estate -- a network of 20,000 real estate agents and brokers, conducted the survey to assess barriers to homeownership and financial educational needs.

Nearly one-third of households with annual income of less than $75,000 viewed lack of financial stability as the primary barrier to buying a home, compared to only 14 percent for those who earned over that amount.

Another dominating problem consumers (12 percent) view as an impediment to homeownership is past or current credit concerns, along with the evaluation of FICO scores, according to GMAC -- which provides nonprime mortgage services through GMAC-RFC and operates GMAC Mortgage Corporation, GMAC Mortgage Wholesale Lending, GMAC Residential Funding and Homecomings Financial.

Moreover, the study reportedly showed that younger consumers were more conscious of the importance of achieving good credit earlier in life -- 43 percent of respondents ages 18 to 24 wanted to learn more about such information, compared to 17 percent average for all consumers.

The poll found that consumers overall see a need for greater homeownership education, especially when it comes to the numerous financial aspects of the home buying process. Twenty percent of the consumers cited a need for greater education in finding the right loan, 17 percent named managing debt, and 17 percent cited evaluating credit.

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