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The use of down payment assistance has risen sharply over the past year and a half, especially among FHA borrowers. Participation has jumped from 7.5 percent at the start of 2025 to over 21 percent recently, near the highest levels in years, as high home prices and borrowing costs push more buyers to seek help. Despite this increase, borrowers using DPA look very similar to those who don’t in terms of credit scores, debt levels, and loan sizes, indicating the program is being used broadly rather than just by riskier borrowers. Performance differences are modest but consistent: DPA borrowers tend to have slightly higher rates of serious delinquency and loan buyouts over time, though their prepayment behavior is largely similar. In the mortgage market, these borrowers are concentrated in higher-coupon Ginnie Mae pools, meaning the impact is more about where the risk sits in the market rather than a major shift in overall credit quality. (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week’s ‘casts are sponsored by Figure, which is shaking up the lending world with their five-day HELOC, offering borrower approvals in as little as five minutes and funding in five days. Figure has hundreds of partners in the Banking, Credit Union, Home Improvement, and of course, IMB space embedding their technology. Today’s has an interview conducted by Movement Mortgage’s Lyra Waggoner of the “Chrismen” (Rob and Robbie) on a listener mailbag list of topics. Lender and Broker Products, Software, and Services