There still seems to be a belief in today's real estate and mortgage market that it's difficult to get a mortgage. While the days of no income or asset verification are definitely gone (at least for the time being, hint, hint), a well documented, well qualified, borrower can certainly still get a mortgage with a low interest rate and reasonable closing costs. If you're one of the many who were fortunate enough to get a mortgage with less than perfect credit, no money down, and now income or asset verification, then yes, you would be of the mind set that no one is lending because no one is lending to those borrowers anymore, not that they should have in the first place. But with last years sales numbers in the U.S. being what they were (an average of over 12,000 homes sold per DAY and just under 8000 requiring a mortgage), this year's numbers are shaping up to prove that there's not only never been a better time to buy, there's never been a better time to get a mortgage either.
As always, we go to the National Association of Realtors (NAR) to get the sales data and according to their records, we're averaging OVER 12,000 homes sold per day in the U.S. and of those homes sold, just over 8000 required a mortgage to purchase (for those of you still wondering, the others were cash buyers). Home prices are still at a record low, as are interest rates. As was stated in my previous entry, owning a home today is probably less expensive than renting, especially when you take into account the tax write off at the end of the year. So if you're in the market to purchase a home and someone is telling you "You'll never get a mortgage today", it's probably them that can't get one.
