On Being a First Time Buyer in 2007

If you're finding its hard to make that jump into the real estate market---you are not alone.

The share of first-time home buyers dropped from 30.5 percent in 2005 to 27.1 percent in 2006 in California, according to a real estate market report released today by the California Association of Realtors (CAR); The State of the California Housing Market.

Getting finances in order so first time buyers can jump in has become harder and the measures buyers must go to have grpwn. The report found that the share of buyers who used a second mortgage rose from 38 percent in 2005 to 43 percent in 2006, which is the highest percentage since 1982. And the share of home buyers with zero down payments increased from 4.5 percent in 2000 to 21.1 percent in 2006, the Realtor group reported.

Leslie Appleton-Young, vice president and chief economist for the C.A.R, said in a statement that two out of five first-time buyers made a zero down payment on their home purchase, while one in 10 repeat buyers purchased their home with no down payment.

The C.A.R survey also found that the share of buyers who used a second mortgage climbed from 38 percent in 2005 to 43 percent in 2006 -- more than triple the percentage since 2001, and the highest percentage since 1982.

Home sales in the San Francisco Bay Area fell at a slightly lower rate than for the state as a whole, the association reported. After peaking in 2004, Bay Area sales declined 10 percent in 2005 and declined another 19 percent in 2006.

The median price in the Bay Area -- the highest of any region in the state -- continued to increase by small single-digit increments throughout 2006, "in part because of inventories that were well below the statewide levels," according to the report.