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Recent Movers w/o Mortgages

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Based upon tabulations I've done using the 2001 national data set, I've
noticed that of homeowners that moved within the last year about 22%
claim to not have a mortgage on their property (similar results can be
obtained from Table 3-15 of the published tabulations).  Assuming that
the number of homeowners that pay off their mortgage within a year of
buying a home is insignificant, this suggests that nearly a quarter of
all homes are paid for in full with cash.

This seems high to me.  Survey data from the Census and NAR on new and
existing home sales puts the share of transactions financed with cash at
between 5 and 10%.

Has anyone else run into this "inconsistency"?  Is there anything about
the way that the mortgage questions are asked that might lead homeowners
to under report their use of mortgages?

Any thoughts?

David Kogut
Senior Economist
Fannie Mae
202-752-6797
david_kogut@fanniemae.com