Interest rates are going up but they remain ridiculously low from a historical perspective.

I have an 1825 3-family and an 1870 four-family in a little historic district near downtown Cincy that I love.

Someone in the lending business will have to answer that question but it's likely because the 50K borrower performs better than the 35K borrower...illustrated by historic default statistics, rather than arbitrary preferences. 

Hi Davon,I looked into this extensively a few years ago and found exactly one loan processor in California (no idea who the LO was) who had done a single renovation loan that included the financed cost of moving the house from Point A and plopping it down on Point B (which was zoned residential and had historic utilities, etc, from a past home).

it was proposed to change to 5 years but it was thrown out thankfully at the last minute.. still 2 years and still one of the single best tax treatment the average american can take..and why i am adamant especially in areas of historic appreciation that folks should do whatever it takes to get that primary residence

And the majority do not have more than a full cycle of audited historical experience. 

Historically a 30 year fixed mortgage has been 7% or higher, so there is a good chance we could see a return to that in the future.

Love the post, and replies saying to expect 9% appreciation, but.... real estate historically has appreciated 3% or on pace with inflation.

That leaves very little room for defaults and borrowers with low credit scores have a high historic default rates.And having a co-signer with poor credit is just silly and it builds the case against lending. 

Rates are and have been trending upwards for several months now, but rates are still low in historical context (6.5% or 7.5% being a historic norm), so most folks are still locking up as much debt as possible in 30YF.