Vic
Elite Member
- Jun 12, 2001
- 50,422
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Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
Originally posted by: Vic
Let's say for example you get a $300k mortgage at 5%, the monthly payment is $1610.46/mo. Lending guidelines tighten, large downs are required, rates go up, prices fall, and now the house is only $200k but rates are 9% -- your payment is now $1609/mo. and less homebuyers are like to qualify.
Exactly what have you "won"?
I've always said I'd rather buy with a low price and high interest rate than a high price and low interest rate. Because you can always refinance or pay more on the prinicple to lower the interest paid, but you can't change the price that you paid.
Hey, I wish I could have bought a home in the early 80s too, but I was still in junior high school then!
No, your logic is sound, except that it represents the mindset of the easy credit era, which is ending if all this pans out the way that it looks to be. That's the thing that I think most people aren't looking at here. Easy credit made it possible for you to so easily refinance. But the "When banks compete, you win" was the first causality here. And that whole mentality was a relatively recent phenomenon in the world of lending anyway. Now we're going back to the days of begging borrowers, and guidelines so strict that the only people getting loans are those who don't actually need them.
Legend Killer mentioned the P&N housing thread, where we have had quite the lively debate. I'd like to point out that this issue here has been the crux of most of the arguments from my perspective. Many posters there are under the highly mistaken impression that home values will simply fall, but nothing else will change, and then they'll be able to easily walk right into a home at a cheaper price. Sorry no.
