Subprime Mess Could be Masking a Great Buying Opportunity!
Lately when reading a paper, internet news services, or watching the nightly news, one might think getting a mortgage today is out of the question. That's the irony of this whole sub-prime mess. If you have good or decent credit its actually a great time to secure long term financing on your dream home.
The media is concentrating way to much on past loans and all the foreclosures that the market is experiencing and forgetting to mention that it's actually not a bad time to buy a home. It's so hard to see thru all the negative chatter to realize the next couple years might just very well be one of the best buying opportunities for the next decade.
Take my area of the country for instance: we have very low unemployment, retail sales are still relatively high historically, Interest rates on a 30 year fixed loan are in the low 6 percent range, we live in a very desireable area of the country and you have a buyers market. Forget about that mortgage mess, what does that have to do with buying today and into the future.
I for one am glad that mess is getting cleaned up. I was never a fan of interest only loans or mortgages that had those 1-3 years fixed that turned into adjustable loans. I can see if someone secured a 5 or even 10 year fixed that turned into an adjustable after that period, but certainly not the shorter term ones. To make things worse, buyers were putting down anywhere from 0-10% in many cases, thats not good coupled with those short term fixed loans.
Most qualified home buyers have nothing to fear, except the confusion they have from all this negative chatter. If you have good to decent credit, a decent down payment and plan to stay in your home for at least 5 years or more, today is a great time to buy a home.
The term "mortgage meltdown" has become so commonplace — on TV, in headlines and even casual conversations — that you might assume that this is a tough time to get a mortgage.
But the reality is starkly different: Mortgage money is plentiful, most mortgage products remain relatively unaffected by troubles in the subprime segment and interest rates for 30-year fixed-rate loans remain in the low 6 percent range for people with reasonably good — not necessarily perfect — credit backgrounds. via Kenneth R. Harney, Syndicated Columnist
Consumers are hearing so much negative talk about the mortgage business that most think it's a terrible time in the mortgage market, which leads them to believe that won't qualify for a loan. The good news is that the products and underwriting that allowed people to buy houses they couldn't afford have disappeared. Were finally getting back to a more normal mortgage market when it comes to lending for the real estate market.