Your Houston Refinance Resource

Is it too late to get a Houston home mortgage for the first time home buyer now that rates are going up?

The mortgage crisis.  The housing crisis.  The economic crisis.  Recession.  Job losses.  Bankruptcy.  Falling property values.  Foreclosures.  Man…  Isn’t there ANY good news out there?!?!

Well, if you happen to be in a position to buy a house - you have a good job with steady income and have a good (or at least decent), credit history, now is a great time to be looking to buy a home.  Times are even better if you’re a first time home buyer because you can take advantage of the government’s $8,000 tax credit.  That’s not ‘like’ free money, it IS free money!

The great thing about the FHA first time home buyer incentive is that now you won’t even need to wait until you file your taxes to get the benefit of the money!

For a while it looked like the government was going to try to allow people to use that money as a down payment source, but fortunately they decided against it (wisely).  After all, letting people buy and move into homes with nothing down, no skin in the game, is part of what caused this whole mortgage crisis to begin with.  Applying the same principle to try to solve the problem just doesn’t make any sense (not even to the government!)

So while you will have to come in with at least 3.5% for a down payment, that money can come from where ever you want; your savings or even from a gift from a friend or family member.  The only stipulation is that it has to clearly be a gift and not a loan.  In other words, you can’t be expected to pay it back by whoever is giving you the money.  Of course you can pay them back if you want; they simply can’t have you under contract to do so.

So once you have your 3.5% to put down on your house, you can use the government’s $8,000 gift in a number of very useful ways.  For instance, you could put it towards making a larger down payment, thereby reducing the total amount of the loan you will be paying on.  You could also use the money to pay closing costs so you don’t have to come to the table with any cash.  Or… you could use it to buy down your interest rate by buying discount points.

Obviously you don’t need to know how to calculate mortgage payments formula to recognize that there are a lot of very powerful ways that you can put that money to work for you right away, making the idea of becoming a home owner not only more appealing, but more manageable for many people. So remember this when you ask yourself, “who offers the best deal on a mortgage in Houston?”…  Even if mortgage rates in Houston are going up, lower home prices and this government incentive still make this a great time to buy a home.

But remember, this offer is only good until the end of 2009, so order now!  — Sorry… too much TV infomercials I guess.  But the truth is that this deal is only good until the end of this year.