Tag Archives: Johnson County Home Buyers

How Will A 1% Rise In Interest Rates Affect Johnson County Kansas Home Buyers?

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The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

Today’s amazing low interest rates make it one of the best times ever to purchase a home. If you’re a home buyer looking to purchase a home in Johnson County Kansas or the surrounding Kansas City area, you’ll want to take a close look at today’s low interest rates and consider what it would mean to you if you wait to buy and rates jump in the near future. It could be just as important to you as the sales price you’ll be looking at ever so closely.

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Let’s compare today’s 4% mortgage interest rates to how things would look if they jumped 1% in the near future. On a $200,000 home, a borrower’s monthly principal and interest payment at 4% would be $955. Should they wait to buy a home and rates have jumped to 5% then the monthly principal and interest payment would be $1,074.  That’s almost $1,500 more a year for the same home should mortgage interest rates go up 1%! So be sure you consider today’s historically low interest rates if you’re on the fence on whether now is the right time to buy a home.

 Posted by Jason Brown

Remember When Kansas City Home Buyers Were Trusted On Their Stated Income Level?

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Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

It’s hard to believe that stated income loans – a.k.a. liar loans – were a common lending practices just a few years ago.  A borrower who was between jobs could simply tell the lender they’re monthly income, accept a slightly higher interest rate, the lender wouldn’t verify the income and the buyer was on their way to closing. Amazing. But those days are gone and it’s become much more black and white to get a mortgage loan today. If you don’t have a 3.5% down payment, you better have VA loan eligibility or be talking to me about one of the special loan programs out there that require you to jump through hoops to get a loan.

You definitely need to have stable employment and decent credit scores. Think about this for a moment… I actually had a buyer with 800 credit scores and 50% down get harassed late in the process to provide additional documentation. He was self-employed and my first thought was, wouldn’t a bank WANT a buyer with 50% equity to default on the loan.  But it took just a moment to rationalize things and realize that banks don’t want any more REO properties on this books — even ones they’d make money on by taking back through the foreclosure process and selling later.

Posted by Jason A. Brown

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Is It Time For Kansas City Home Buyers To Get Off The Fence?

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Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

At least one economist believes that “every major price index points to a housing market that has hit bottom”. If true, that would be music to Kansas City home seller’s ears. But it would also mean that prices would likely start trending up at that point. When they do – and they will eventually – then lookers who didn’t buy will have missed out on some great deals. Buying at the bottom of a down market is going to make a lot of people money but buying at the perfect time involves as much luck as skill, mainly because we’ll already be well into a recovery by the time it’s reported.

Even though it will take history to show us whether this was the perfect time to buy, indications are present that now could be the time to get off the fence. I pay close attention to the economists who study our real estate markets daily and to hear a reputable economist’s assessment that we’re now at the bottom of the real estate market is promising news. If more economists jump on board touting that we’re indeed at the bottom, it will be PAST home buyers who bought at the perfect time.

The above quote from William Wheaton, Professor of Economics and Real Estate at MIT in Boston Massachusetts certainly got my attention and Professor Wheaton further points out that home prices have stabilized in nearly every United States region and that median U.S. home price increased from $164,000 in February of 2010 to $182,600 in August of 2010 — which is a  HUGE 11% increase in just 6 months time!


Posted by Jason A. Brown

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