Frank Bruno asked:


As a first-time homebuyer, you are eligible for many programs offered by mortgage companies and the government. An often-overlooked resource for the first-time buyer is their local county government or municipality. Many counties in the United States offer incentives for first-time home buyers. Those incentives include down payment assistance and grants – free money for buying a home if you meet their requirements. As well, some governments, in conjunction with local mortgage companies, offer reduced interest rates for the first-time buyer. Some mortgage companies even offer relaxed lending standards to help increase your chances of being approved.

Many organizations offer free home buying seminars that outline the ramifications of homeownership. It would be wise to attend such a seminar, as ignorance can be extremely costly in the long run. People have been through situations as dire as foreclosure because they were not prepared for the realities of being a homeowner. What’s more, some mortgage companies require you to attend these seminars in order to qualify for first-time homebuyer programs.

To take advantage of these offers, check with your county’s department of housing. In many cases, they can send you a packet that outlines all of their available programs, as well as the guidelines for qualifying for the programs.

While you check into these government resources, you should also order a “tri-merge” credit report. A tri-merge credit report refers to a single report that contains the information from each of the three major credit reporting bureaus. Those three are Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. The tri-merge report will also contain your credit scores from all three bureaus.

When it comes to the world of mortgage lending, credit scores determine almost everything. Your score determines things such as how much money you can borrow, how much documentation you need to present to the lender, what your interest rate will be, and how much money you have to pay up front (the down payment).

People have a tendency to believe things that are written, even if factually incorrect. When it comes to reading your credit report, you must scrutinize every single entry with a jaundiced eye. Just about every piece of information you see on your credit report factors into your credit score in some way. Therefore, it is crucial that you make a note of any errors in your report so that they can be corrected.

There are many techniques you can use to boost your credit score. There are even some methods that can boost your score overnight. Regardless of the methods you use, make sure that you do everything possible to raise your scores. By doing so, you’ll be in a fantastic position to be able to take advantage of any great offers that come your way.

When buying a home for the first time, the most important thing to remember is that you are never alone. Utilize the resources outlined here, and you’ll find the process much less intimidating than you imagined.

first time home buyer

David Duveen asked:


Real estate price trends in the US are simmering in the sun that continues to set over the fool’s-gold-rush that pumped house prices to untenable highs just a short while ago. The pump was primed, or rather sub-primed, by widespread questionable mortgage lending, that anyone with even a modicum of ‘economics’ knowledge must have known was dangerously sandy ground to build a boom on!

Looking around the local housing markets in the US, price deflation has reached double-digit proportions in some worst hit areas. While housing woes have hit the whole country, California real estate price trends indicate that it will figure among those areas worst affected. A major reasons for this is probably that during the last few months the so-called “Golden State” has begun to look tarnished, experiencing as it has the highest rate of falling home prices. Indeed, recent drops in typical Californian home prices are regarded as without precedent.

The Sunshine State, and Miami in particular, has also been suffering a ‘cloudy period’ in terms of house prices. The damaged mortgage market and exceptional numbers of foreclosures have led to rapid a decline in Florida real estate values. Let no-one be under any illusion that this has been just a recent occurrence, either, for Miami has now proven one of the worst US local real estate markets for the last two years. The boom in condominium sales prior to this period has simply added fuel to the fire, and in effect the local market is in the midst of a real depression..

Perhaps Florida and California were easy targets to sight when it comes to the likelihood of crumbling when the pressure was on, but some of the other local US housing markets teetering on the brink of the recessionary precipice have been harder to predict. One of the main reasons that Florida and California were set-up for a fall was the fact that so many folks had “made gold while the sun shone” on the housing market, particularly in these appositely nick-named areas.

However, due to the fact that other areas did not experience the speed, or size of the property value rises, they have so far avoided being top of this doleful chart. But in such local markets as Arizona, Indiana, Massachusetts and Nevada, the impact of downward real estate price trends, and escalating foreclosure rates are also contributing to deteriorating property market conditions. In yet other areas, such as Michigan, it is the general economic downturn, leading to numerous job losses, that has also been impacting on the local housing market.

The further factor that promises to make things look even bleaker is that many millions of adjustable rate mortgages are due to be upwardly revised in the coming months. When this happen, it is quite likely that even a good proportion of those who would not have been considered sub-prime will also struggle to meet their mortgage costs in certain areas; particularly if take-home income has been hit in any way. Some will inevitable face the double edged sword of either experiencing foreclosure or having sell themselves short, by under-pricing their home for a quick sale, especially as arranging a refinancing package is becoming less available, or viable.

Almost all the economic forecasts indicate that what remains of 2008 will prove even more problematical for the housing market. Many statistics imply that home values will continue to drop and even new homes look set to experience a loss of almost 20 percent before the year ends.

Although the most optimistic indications suggest that the market problems could start to level off towards the end of 2008 or early 2009, most experts are still admonishing even when there is somewhat of a recovery, the market is unlikely to match its previous highs. This means that prices could still fall well short of the peaks reached in 2005. The speed, or height of the price escalation during the “sub-prime” hey-day is unlikely to be matched again any time soon!

Nevertheless the future may be rosier for certain areas. This is particularly the case in areas that were less impacted by sub-prime mortgage madness, or where the such mortgagees have already been forced out through foreclosure. There is also the potentially positive impact of the hotly-anticipated stimulus package could the local housing market in many areas.

It could soon be that US real estate price trends offer first-time home buyers the relief they have been needing in order to get a foot on the property ladder. But, for home owners already in the market, it may be a lot longer before they really feel any benefit. Naturally, perhaps, most homeowners still fight shy of accepting they have lost the equity they once notionally had in their homes. The plain fact is that many property owners have yet to wake up and realize that the worth of their homes is just not what it may have seemed to be on paper, during the halcyon days of booming property price trends a mere three years ago.

Get Advise from a Scottsdale Realtor