Greene County rates high for access to mortgage loans

Greene County ranked No. 9 on a recent list of Missouri counties where homeowners are mostly likely to be approved for a mortgage.

Counties in the study by financial data tracking firm SmartAsset were ranked based on the ratio of mortgage applications to approved mortgages, according to a news release.

In Greene County, the loan funding rate is 69.7 percent. The top 10 counties in Missouri are:
    •    Oregon, 74.2 percent;
    •    Osage, 71.9 percent;
    •    Douglas, 71.8 percent;
    •    Saline, 71.4 percent;
    •    Nodaway, 71.1 percent;
    •    Cole, 70.7 percent;
    •    Boone, 70.2 percent;
    •    St. Charles, 70.1 percent;
    •    Greene, 69.7 percent; and
    •    Christian, 69.5 percent.

The mortgage approval rate was a factor in SmartAsset’s study of the best mortgage markets. It also considered borrowing costs, property taxes and mortgage payments.

Greene County ranked 25th in Missouri and 667th in the United States. The county’s five-year borrowing costs average $75,034, property taxes average $11,220 and annual mortgage payments average $14,417.

The top-ranked county in Missouri is Oregon, with five-year borrowing costs of $74,769, property taxes of $6,724 and annual mortgage payments of $14,364. The No. 1 area in the United States is Faulk County in South Dakota, according to SmartAsset.