The Money is Available, Where are the Borrowers?

Recently I have seen more than one bank advertising, "Want to buy a home? WE have money to lend!" While I do admire their advertising creativity, I would like to point out that they may have money to lend, but they are going to use the same, or stricter, underwriting guidelines as everyone else, and the fact is there are plenty of mortgage lenders who would love to have your business.

Many people seem to be under the impression that no one can get a mortgage loan today, when in fact a borrower with a down payment, job, and good credit is as much in demand on the financing side as he is on the purchase itself. First time purchasers with limited funds still have financing available as well, at terms just as attractive as they were before the whole meltdown started. If you don't own a home, but want to, the combination of lower home prices and low fixed interest rates makes this a great time to buy one.

Rates on 30 year fixed rate loans improved last week by about .375% to almost 6%. This is the kind of interest rate movement that used to cause mortgage lenders phones to light up; today it's hardly even noticed or mentioned. Same thing with rates going up suddenly, as they did a couple of weeks ago; used to be you'd have mortgage people who "float" interest rates running down the hall screaming "this is the big one! We're all be going to be wiped out!" (floating rates can be dangerous business); today it's still not good news, but no one can claim it caught them by surprise.

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Carl Trawick is a Mortgage Specialist and Licensed Mortgage Broker with the firm Access e*Mortgage. He can be reached at 904-343-1145 or ctrawick@nefcom.net