It's a very interesting time in the housing market, with home prices at seductively low levels and still negotiable, and with tax credits extended from first-time homebuyers to current home owners who have been in their homes for five of the past eight years.
Buyers are coming out again, albeit in the lower price ranges, and prospective sellers should know that, if priced right, some homes are even receiving multiple bids. Add historically low interest rates for mortgages to the mix, and you have a perfect window in which to buy a home before interest rates escalate, which they are poised to do.
But just since January 1, the landscape for financing the purchase of a home has changed significantly in response to the mortgage crisis of the past year, and the key word to describe that change is "slower."
"It was possible in the past to obtain a mortgage with modest or no information," says Sol Skolnick, mortgage broker with The Asset Center in Armonk, "but, today, most lenders require that borrowers come as wage earners with full documentation of their employment, their income for the past two years, and some level of assets that would allow them to maintain and sustain their home once purchased."
Note: To read the complete story from my Home Guru column in The Examiner Newspapers in Westchester and Putnam Counties, visit:
A New Landscape for Mortgages Today
To know what's happening in the suburban New York real estate market, review all of my articles at my website: www.PrimaveraRealEstate.com
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