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The median U.S. homebuyer’s down payment has fallen for the first time in nearly two years, according to data released Monday by Redfin.

The 1 percent drop, to $62,468, is subtle but significant, according to the report, which tracked county records in the 40 most populous metro areas in the U.S.

“The buyers who are moving forward today are being very careful with their finances because with housing costs near record highs, they’re typically spending a big portion of their paycheck to buy a home,” Redfin Premier agent Fernanda Kriese, who is based in Las Vegas, said in the report.

“I’m seeing an uptick in first-time buyers looking for starter homes,” Kriese added. “Combine that with concerns about layoffs and a potential recession, and people are doing things like cross-comparing mortgage origination fees, shopping around for lenders and looking into down-payment assistance.”

In terms of percentage, the typical homebuyer today puts down 15 percent of the purchase price, nearly equal to the 15.1 percent they put down at this time last year, Redfin’s report noted. And the median down payment for American homebuyers has hovered around that number for about the last four years, briefly dipping around 10 percent in early 2023. Pre-pandemic, a 10 percent down payment was more frequent.

But dollar-amount down payments have not fallen on an annual basis since the summer of 2023 when home-sales prices were also falling, according to Redfin. During that period, down payments were declining because of falling home prices.

Now, home prices are rising, although they are doing so more slowly. As of April, home prices were up 1.4 percent year over year, compared to the 4 percent they were up by during the same period in 2024.

The reason down payments are falling by dollar amount is because not all homebuyers make a down payment — one-third pay in all cash. And those that are financing a home are most likely buying less expensive homes, which also means a smaller down payment in terms of dollars, but not necessarily percentage terms.

Redfin said that a higher share of homebuyers are also using FHA and VA loans, which allow for smaller down payments, somewhere between 0 percent to 3.5 percent. In April, 15.3 percent of mortgage home sales used an FHA loan, up from 14.2 percent the year before. The share of mortgage home sales using a VA loan was 7.2 percent in April, up from 6.4 percent the year before and the highest April level seen since 2020.

With homebuyer affordability remaining difficult because of roughly 7 percent mortgage rates, many buyers may be purchasing lower-priced homes than they might otherwise. Economic uncertainty in the U.S. right now may also be driving buyers to reserve more of their money in their bank accounts for extenuating circumstances.

Meanwhile, there are now more homesellers than homebuyers in the U.S., tipping the market to favor buyers, which has meant concessions and sellers willing to accept lower down payments. Unfortunately, lower down payments might also be a sign of a buyer with less secure financial standing, and a deal that’s more likely to fall through.

Email Lillian Dickerson

Bigger. Better. Bolder. Inman Connect is heading to San Diego. Join thousands of real estate pros, connect with the Inman Community, and gain insights from hundreds of leading minds shaping the industry. If you’re ready to grow your business and invest in yourself, this is where you need to be. Go BIG in San Diego!

A third indictment was filed against former luxury brokers Tal and Oren Alexander and their brother, private security executive Alon Alexander, in the federal sex-trafficking case against them on Tuesday, which brings the total number of counts against the brothers up to 10.

The brothers now face one count of conspiracy to commit sex-trafficking; five counts of sex-trafficking by force, fraud or coercion; one count of sex-trafficking of a minor by force, fraud or coercion; two counts of inducement to travel to engage in unlawful sexual activity; and the new count of aggravated sexual abuse by force, threat or intoxicant.

The count added to the superseding indictment alleges that Alon and Oren used force to administer a “drug, intoxicant or other substance” to a seventh female victim who was unaware that she was being intoxicated in order to control her and cause her to engage in sexual acts while “on a Bahamian flagged cruise ship which departed from and arrived in the United States.” The previous indictment against them had identified six victims, one of whom was a minor.

The new indictment further states that as a result of the alleged offenses in the new count against them, Oren and Alon are to forfeit any real and personal property that was used or intended for use to commit the offense, “including but not limited to a sum of money in United States currency representing the amount of proceeds traceable to the commission of said offenses.”

The Alexander brothers were arrested on conspiracy to commit sex trafficking and sex trafficking charges in Miami in December 2024. A superseding indictment submitted by prosecutors in May added six new charges against them.

All three brothers have denied the charges against them.

A lawyer representing Alon told Inman in an emailed statement that, “The government continues to move backwards — the latest charge changes absolutely nothing and is merely a reheated version of the same case in an effort to keep the media firestorm going against the brothers.”

Another lawyer for Alon pointed Inman to a polygraph test that he passed in January while denying had ever had sex with a woman he knew had been given drugs.

Lawyers representing Oren and Tal did not immediately respond to Inman’s request for comment for this story, but after the superseding indictment was filed in May, attorneys for Tal said the new indictment “changes nothing,” and that it was “a reheated version of the same case — and still does not include conduct that amounts to federal sex trafficking.”

At that time, a lawyer for Oren told Inman that, “These new accusations, like the previous ones, are meritless, and reflect a failed prosecutorial effort to salvage a factually and legally unfounded case built on readily disprovable claims.”

Oren and Alon, as well as family friend Ohad Fisherman, also face state rape charges in Florida. Oren has been charged with three counts of sexual battery and Alon and Fisherman have been charged each with one count of sexual battery.

Several civil lawsuits submitted by dozens of women are also outstanding against the Alexander brothers in New York State and elsewhere. The majority of the lawsuits were filed in New York under an extension of a city law that allowed alleged victims of gender-motivated violence to sue their supposed perpetrators, no matter how long ago the alleged act of violence occurred. Victims were allowed to file lawsuits through the end of February 2025.

The brothers are currently being held in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center.

Update: This story was updated after publishing with a comment from a lawyer representing Alon Alexander.

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Email Lillian Dickerson

Bigger. Better. Bolder. Inman Connect is heading to San Diego. Join thousands of real estate pros, connect with the Inman Community, and gain insights from hundreds of leading minds shaping the industry. If you’re ready to grow your business and invest in yourself, this is where you need to be. Go BIG in San Diego!

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has withdrawn its objection to the settlement between plaintiffs and MLS Property Information Network (PIN) in the homeseller commission lawsuit known as Nosalek, according to a response the DOJ filed in the case on Tuesday.

The move by the government agency follows homeseller plaintiffs and defendant MLS PIN submitting a fourth amended settlement agreement last week, which stipulates that offers of cooperative compensation will be prohibited on MLS PIN’s platform (something other MLSs did in the settlement of commission lawsuit case Sitzer | Burnett) and raises the proposed settlement fund from $3 million to $3.95 million, the same amount it would have cost MLS PIN to join NAR’s settlement in Sitzer | Burnett.

The DOJ’s response specified that it was not taking any position on whether or not the proposed settlement was “fair, reasonable, and adequate” so that the court could approve it without influence from the agency. The DOJ also reiterated that it believes “blanket, upfront offers” of buyer broker compensation from homesellers or their agents are anticompetitive in practice and lead to inflated home prices.

Furthermore, even though the parties reached a proposed settlement, it does not mean that they are shielded from “future enforcement actions” by the government, the filing stated. And, if MLS PIN indeed follows the terms of the settlement, that action in itself would not be a defense, should the government decide to take legal action against the MLS in the future.

“Because the proposed settlement was reached between private litigants in a private class action suit, such settlement does not preclude any future enforcement actions by the United States,” the DOJ’s response said. “Nor would compliance with the proposed settlement or new MLS PIN rules implementing that settlement afford a defense to any such enforcement actions.”

If such a warning by the DOJ is true in the Nosalek case, it may also apply to settlements arranged with parties involved in other commission lawsuit cases with approved settlements — which should keep major industry players on their toes.

A preliminary settlement approval hearing is scheduled for June 10 in Massachusetts federal court.

Other defendants in the Nosalek case, including HomeServices of America, Keller Williams, Anywhere and RE/MAX, have all now been granted final approval of their settlements.

Email Lillian Dickerson