Top news of the week from Real Estate Today
Mortgage rates have been coming close to the record lows seen in May of this year with the average rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages retreating even deeper, below 5%.
This is great news for home buyers looking for a mortgage, and homeowners looking to refinance. They now have an opportunity to reduce their payment considerably. Refinancing a 30-year, fixed-rate loan for $200,000 could drop their payments by around $130 a month from a year ago.
Rates on 15 year fixed rates, and adjustable rate mortgages all dropped, too.
Also in the news this week, the big winners in today's real estate market could well be the young people just starting to invest and buy their first homes. First-time homebuyers - most of them between the ages of 25 and 45 - accounted for nearly half of home sales from January through July 2009, according to the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®.
George Jaramillo, a 35-year-old business analyst from Atlanta, who recently bought three investment properties calls this a historic time. "It's a great opportunity to make some gains in the future", he said
A study by investment company T. Rowe Price points out that investing when prices are low can result in amazing gains. Between 1970 and 1990, the annualized rate of return for the S&P 500 was 11.5 percent.
"We need to be shouting from the rooftops that this is not the time to get out of the market if you're young," says Christine Fahlund, a senior financial planner with T. Rowe Price, reminding us all that this is the time to be in the market.
