Home Buyers: Sitting on the Sidelines and Waiting?

Home Buyers: Sitting on the Sidelines and Waiting?

Everyday brings new revelations about soaring foreclosure rates, billion-dollar losses and lenders shutting down, leaving borrowers in the lurch and thousands out of work.  Yet, through it all, interest rates remain surprisingly affordable.

If you’re in the market for a mortgage, here’s what you need to know about the current crisis:

Banks and finance companies obtain most of the money they loan for mortgages from two government-chartered companies – commonly referred to as Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae – or large private investors such as retirement plans, mutual funds and insurers.

Investors have lost incredible amounts of money over the past several months because so many homeowners are defaulting on loans made from 2004 through 2006 — particularly on ARMs given to borrowers with poor credit.

Almost everyone blames this mess on lax lending standards and a screwed up system of rewarding mortgage brokers for pushing loans that borrowers had little or no chance of repaying. 

As a result, home buyers will now be expected to meet more stringent standards than if you’d applied just a few months ago.  Even borrowers with good credit need a larger down payment, higher income, fewer debts and the ability to fully document all of that.

But taking a longer term view, home loans remain surprisingly affordable.  Today’s rates are lower than the 7% or 8% we were paying during the mid- to late-'90s, and the double-digit rates we were charged throughout the '80s and early '90s.

Where will all this lead?

Economists at Freddie Mac originally predicted 30-year fixed rate loans would average 6.2% this year and 6.4% in 2008.  Now they’re saying rates will remain around 6.7% the rest of the year.

Has all the negative news lately about mortgage companies caused you to back away and sit on the home buying sidelines?  If so, talk to us.  Now COULD BE the best time in decades for you to consider buying a home, with inventory at all time highs, and interest rates still amazingly low, all things considered.