Home loans

The Measure of Things*

~ Lynn Bridge ~ Leave a comment

* Or, ‘Why square footage listed on the MLS points toward the truth, but might not be truth itself’. 

Just me being silly before leaving for my “What is ANSI?” class at Austin Board of Realtors

I am pretty sure the 100-foot tape measure in the video is older than I am, by the way.  Here’s bringing you information from Friday’s class on measuring square footage…

Where does that square footage number come from on a home-for-sale listing? It will say something like “according to tax records” or “according to owner”. But, really where did the county appraisal district or the owner get that number?

If the house was originally built as part of a subdivision of houses going in pretty much all at once, the builder probably had blueprints for 4 or 5 different house designs and the house in question came from one of those blueprints. Did the builder follow that blueprint exactly, or are there variations in the homes that all came from the same blueprint? Who knows? But, the county probably used the builder’s blueprint numbers to assign a square footage to the house in question.

If a house has no blueprint that is available, the county tax appraiser can come out and, using a wheeled device running along the ground, measure the footprint of the foundation to the nearest foot and calculate the square footage of the foundation from those measurements. (How exact do you think that is?) And, if the house has a second story, the footprint number is doubled to represent an approximation of the size of the house. Imagine if the upstairs portion of the house is a loft with only half the square footage of the room below. Or, imagine rooms under the sloping roofline that are scarcely high enough to stand up in. The county appraiser does not know these things just by looking at the house from outside, so the square footage calculation might be off considerably from the area a person can actually walk on inside the house.

Even square footage that was calculated by a licensed appraiser hired by a previous seller or by a previous lender might be a deceptive number. Until fairly recently, there was no standardized way of measuring square footage. Some measurements would include the thickness of interior walls in the total square footage and some would not. Some would include staircase space, some not. Some older measurements might include square footage of upstairs rooms with only 6-foot ceilings, while newer measurements would not. And so on and so forth.

A licensed appraiser is required now to use methods spelled out by the American National Standards Institute. Which is a good thing, because we can compare two different house sizes measured recently by licensed appraisers.

But, if we are looking at the work of an appraiser from years ago, we simply don’t know how the square footage was calculated at that time.

Are you starting to be a little skeptical about how personally important that number is on the builder’s marketing material, or on the MLS listing? Yeah, me too. That’s why you always hear me answer the square footage question with exactly what we know, “1843 square feet according to the tax records“, or “5220 square feet according to the builder.” I am not trying to evade the question as much as I am emphasizing the approximate nature of that number we’re all looking at.

How does this affect you? Buyer or seller, you are gonna want the buyer’s lender to see an appraisal that matches what the buyer is offering for the house, right? I mean, what if the appraiser comes up with square footage that is considerably less than the square footage that has been on the county tax records all these years? The appraisal might not match what everyone has been thinking that amount of square footage should be worth! Either the buyer coughs up more funds from her pocket, or the deal falls through, ‘cuz no lender is going to make a loan greater than the ascribed value of the house.

Two lessons:

  1. If you are a seller and the square footage listed on the tax records, or from another source when you bought the house, seems really off from what you are observing when you are in the house, you might want to hire your own appraiser to make the calculation using the most up-to-date methods. Why risk going down a long road toward closing a sale when the whole thing comes to a screeching halt because the buyer’s appraisal is lower than the contract amount?
  2. If you are a buyer and you are running around trying the get the most square footage for the dollar, how are you going to know when you’ve found that touchstone? Can you trust the exact number you are seeing on the listing?

Buyers: calculating the value of a home in your mind should not begin and end with price per square foot. I hope you see by now that this is not a trustworthy number! Like I said, that number is a signpost that points toward truth, but it is not likely to be Truth itself.

Sources: Candy Cooke’s class on “What is ANSI?”

Square Footage- Method For Calculating: ANSI Z765-2013 from Home Innovation Research Labs

 

Buyer Questions

~ Lynn Bridge ~ Leave a comment

Here are some buyer questions I hear a lot:

  1. What is a typical timeline for making an offer?
  2. How many offers will I have to make on homes before I have one accepted?
  3. Why are the ‘for sale’ prices so different from what the county tax appraisal says?

I love these questions! Question #2 especially indicates to me that the buyer is savvy about our particular market.

myPic

1. What is the timeline for making an offer? After further questioning, I find that the buyer usually means ‘How much time is there between looking at houses and going under contract? How much time from having a signed contract until I own the house?’ 

A couple of generalizations about this set of questions: are we talking about Austin? Or, are we talking about one of the surrounding cities? What is the price point?

Austin is generally the fastest-moving market because there are so many more buyers than there are available properties (hint, hint, Potential Sellers!). If you are not ready RIGHT NOW to make an offer and show the seller your ability to pay down payment, closing costs, and get a loan, you could be a day too late in getting the house you want. Once you start shopping, you could be getting an offer accepted in the next couple of days.

If you are looking in an outlying area, you might have days or weeks before you find what you want and have an offer accepted, BUT some situations require you to act as fast as you would in Austin. If it is a fabulous property at an appealing price, be prepared to act that very day, or it could be gone!

The next generalization about this question is: what is your price point? In general, the lower price-points, say $600K and lower in Austin and the lake area, and $350K and lower in outlying areas are highly sought-after and you will have lots of competition for that house. The price points higher than that tend to last longer on the market, but it is still true that a fabulous property at an appealing price will go quickly, especially if the price is under a million dollars for a truly million-dollar property and/or location.

If you have a cash offer accepted, you can close quickly- you will be waiting on the results of your own inspection, the title company’s commitment to what the property being passed to you legally is, and possibly, the seller’s schedule of when they can vacate the premises. I have heard of closes in just 4-5 business days, but it is typically 10 days or 2 weeks, realistically.

If you have a loan that needs underwriting, your close won’t happen in less than three weeks after you have a contract, although about 4 weeks is more typical. If you have a lender who is not motivated to get you to the closing table, it can take longer.

2. How many offers will I have to make before I have one accepted? The answer to this is dependent on the price range in which you are looking and on how close to your personal upper limit are you looking. The lower prices, say $250K and below, are full of buyers looking and making offers. I know many ways to make the offer really great for the seller, besides the sales price. BUT, the sales price you are offering is still the most important part of what you ‘lay on the table’ for the seller.

Which leads us to the second part of the question- how close are you to your personal upper financial limit in the homes you choose to look at? If you are already close to the top, you won’t have room to offer more, sometimes much more, than the asking price. Some of these properties receive 10, 20, or 30 offers in a couple of days. Being able to offer a lot more than the asking price becomes important, or you just lose out to someone who can. People looking at close to their upper limit in price might lose 5 or 6 offers before they finally have a contract on a house.

3. Why are the ‘for sale’ prices so different from what the county tax appraisal says?

The way I have had this explained to me in my real estate classes is this: there are three prices on a house; the price the county puts on the property, the price an appraiser says the property is worth, and the price the open market says the property is worth.

a. County appraisers are not necessarily trained, licensed appraisers. They might be people hired to drive around to see if there is anything obvious that has changed about the property since the last drive-by, and then the next year’s value is slapped on the property based on what the last year’s assigned value was, plus whatever increase in revenue the county might need to keep paving the roads, paying the sheriff, etc.  Often, the county’s appraised value is lower than actual market value.

b. An appraiser has been trained to use algorithms plus experienced judgment to interpret the results in order to arrive at a value for the property. Your lender will hire an appraiser from the appraiser pool to calculate a value for the property before the loan is approved. You will pay for the appraisal at closing and not all lenders are careful to hire an appraiser who truly knows the peculiarities of the local market. I encourage you to use a lender whose policy is to “hire local” when it comes to appraisers.

c. The open market (available through exposure on the multiple listing service) will place a value on property for you. Given enough exposure, the current pool of buyers will select a price at which a property will be purchased. If the property you are looking at is listed by a competent agent who has been able to convince the seller of the reality of the market [both important caveats], the price you are looking at on the glossy brochure or pretty website is somewhat close to what a buyer will pay at this particular time. An exception would be if the seller, assisted by the listing agent, calculates that putting a lower price on a home will produce many more offers from which to choose. In this case, the listed price may be lower than you could expect to pay.

There is, of course, a lot more I could say about each of these questions, but this will get us started.

DSCF1096

Photo from 2006, when I was with a church group that worked on new post-Hurricane Katrina homes for the musicians of New Orleans. These were built to be appealing, safe, and affordable to build up the community again.

More Than a Credit Score

~ Lynn Bridge ~ Leave a comment

Roberta and Jimmy at home in Kerrville

A Blast from the Past- Kerrville, TX

I was updating my home-buyer’s packet, and I reached out to a knowledgeable lender, James Dowis, of Infinity Mortgage here in Austin, to ask him what I need to tell people to prepare before they go home loan shopping. James, being the ever-helpful person he is, promptly responded with these suggestions:

For all pre-qualifications:

 

  • 2016 & 2015 W-2’s and/or 1099’s.
  • If you are a business owner please provide your 2015 and 2016 K-1’s
  • 2016 & 2015 Filed Personal Tax Returns, all pages and schedules
  • Most current 30 days paystubs
  • Most current 2 months bank statements, including account number, name and address, all pages
  • Copy of your driver’s license
  • Copy of your existing mortgage statement and most recent property insurance bill, if you currently own a home and plan on retaining it

 

When I first talk with the borrower I ask questions including if they have been involved in a foreclosure / bankruptcy /divorce and I alter my document requests to possibly include the following:

 

  • Copy of your divorce decree and child support orders, if applicable
  • Copy of the Trustee Deed from when your foreclosure was finalized
  • Copy of your bankruptcy documentation showing your discharge date

 

For underwriting, we would also need:

 

  • Explanations of large non-payroll deposits.  “Large” typically means 25% or more of gross monthly income.
  • Transaction log from bank statement showing the earnest money check was cashed.

 

All deals, every one, require different documents based on the unique scenarios.  If gift funds are received we need documentation on that.  If the borrower is married but the spouse will not be on the loan there are documents needed for that.  So, we collect the basic items, review them along with the application and then ask for the remaining items.

I hope this helps you buyers out there on this “Mathematical Monday”. Thanks, James!

 

Stuff to Know About Buying a House

~ Lynn Bridge ~ Leave a comment

IMG_0097I love to insert into this blog photos I’ve made over the years!

You can get lots of information on the internet about buying a house, selling a house, maintaining a house, etc. Much of the information is even correct. In some state. Under some circumstances. At some point in time.

I start reading about ‘How to sell a house’, or ‘How to buy a house’ and I think, “Yes, but not in my state…. That’s not the way it’s done here.” We have personally bought and sold homes in three states, multiple times, over decades. Each state is very different, and things change within one state over time. Every two years, after the Texas Legislature meets, we have new laws to follow.

The first thing to know about buying a home in the Austin area in April 2017 is that, if you are going to need to borrow money to buy the house, you must tend to that first thing. REALTORS® keep lists of lenders they’ve worked with and whose clients have had a good experience. Interview some REALTORS®, pick one, and ask about lenders.

Lenders will pre-qualify you for a loan, which means that they ask in person, or online, for your numbers and information, crank it through an algorithm, and spit out a pre-qualification, if your numbers pass the test. Because it is based on self-reporting, and doesn’t go in-depth with your complete financial picture, a pre-qualification doesn’t carry much weight with the seller of a home, especially a nice home in a ‘hot’ neighborhood.  Your REALTOR® is not likely to show you very many homes until you have a more substantial loan work-up done than pre-qualification.

Special note: if you cannot get pre-qualified for a loan, there are companies that can guide you through your journey to financial stability; a good lender might very well partner with a company that can help you in this way; and some lenders offer this service. All is not lost if you don’t qualify right away.

The next level is a pre-approval by the lender. This means that the lender has checked your background information, such as your credit scores from the three major reporters; Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax, has seen copies of your pay stubs, etc. A pre-approval is as far as most lenders will take you before you have a signed contract to buy a house. For the purposes of most home sellers, a buyer with a pre-approval is good enough to sign a contract with.

A few lenders will actually take you through the underwriting process before you even sign a contract to buy a house. Underwriting means a specialist has rooted through your work life, your banking and financial life, your credit history, and your related personal life enough to agree to loan you up to a certain amount of money to buy a house, providing the house you choose passes muster. Going into contract negotiations with a home seller after you have been underwritten for a loan is a strong position, provided your offer is one that makes the seller happy.

Okay, next subject is paperwork. There is a lot. I have been told, and have seen evidence,  that appropriate paperwork provides some legal protection for the following parties: 1) YOU, the buyer, 2) the seller, 3) your real estate brokerage, 4) the agent or REALTOR® looking after your interests on behalf of that brokerage, 5) the agent and brokerage on the seller’s side, 6) the title company insuring clear title on your purchase, 7) the lender, 8) the property owner’s association, if there is one, 9) the builder, if it is a new home purchase, 10) any lien holders on the property in question, 11) the government entities under whose jurisdiction the property falls, 12) any inspectors you employ to assess the property for you, and 13) anyone else who is breathing and walking, rolling, or slithering  nearby your real estate transaction. There is gonna be a lot of paperwork, and it’s my job to make sure it all gets negotiated where possible, filled out properly, and signed.

Because there is a lot of paperwork that gets looked at and signed at various points along the way from agreeing to hire a particular brokerage to work for you to completing the buyer transaction and taking possession of your new home, you must plan to be available during the time-intensive periods. 

Also, in this still-hot market, you must plan to be available to look at homes and make decisions in short-order. In most cases, you won’t have time to mull over a situation during the buying process; the home you want will be under contract with someone else that day. The time for big, mulling-over decisions is before you go looking at homes. Your REALTOR® can help you think through your situation and decide on your must-haves, your bottom line, and your contingencies before going into battle.

While we’re talking about going into battle, let me touch on the subject of negotiations. I have found that negotiating on behalf of a client works so much better when we all treat each other with utmost respect. I aim to be unfailingly polite and respectful, no matter how the seller approaches things- not only does it make work more satisfying, but I am able to be more successful in getting you what you need as a buyer.

Some of you have heard the opening salvo in a negotiation- the selling price on an item- and then offered a low bid, followed by going back-and-forth with the seller until you eventually meet in the middle.  In home-buying, there is an element of that strategy. However, it pays to understand the psychology of what happens with a house offer. Sellers are usually quite invested in their price and their home, and they don’t respect a low-ball offer on their prized possession. Not to mention, in this market, a lot of times the offers start at the list price and go upward from there. No, it would not be unusual for a low-ball offer to have the effect of cutting off any possible negotiation. You could end your chances before you even get started.

There are other considerations besides price. The standard one-to-four family residential resale contract has 9 pages, not counting additional disclosures, addendums, and ammendments, so you can imagine how many other points there are for a buyer and seller to agree on besides just the selling price. Your REALTOR® can help you put together an offer package that is appealing to the seller. Maybe even appealing enough for the seller to sign a contract with you!

Now you have signed a contract to buy a pre-owned home. Congratulations! Except in unusual circumstances, you will want to pay the seller an amount of money for the privilege of keeping the home off the open market long enough for you to hire professionals to inspect the various systems of your home and give you a report. You need to be reasonably certain that you know what you are getting into. The money you pay the seller for this purpose is called the “option money” and it will be a direct payment. If during your option period that is specified in the contract you decide not to buy the home, the seller has no obligation to return the option money. After all, you paid her the money to let you sign a contract, yet still spend time re-examining your future purchase, and possibly deciding against it. That keeps her home off the market for days, and could be a real liability for her.

You will also pay an amount of money called “earnest money” to show that you are indeed serious about following through with the home purchase, provided there are no nasty surprises that weren’t evident in the home after first inspection by you. This earnest money does not go to the seller; it goes to the escrow officer, usually at the title company you and the seller have agreed to use. Or, it may go to a lawyer’s office and be held in escrow there. This money is recoverable, as long as you follow all the agreements in the executed contract. If you buy the property, the escrow money may be used toward your transaction at closing. Earnest money is typically about 1% of the agreed-upon selling price of the house, but this is one of the many negotiable points between you and the seller.

In most cases, one of your expenses as a buyer will be the appraiser’s work. In a loan situation, the lender will order an appraisal by a licensed individual to give that appraiser’s best assessment of what the value of the house is. In this market, sometimes the agreed-upon sales price is higher than what the appraiser says it is worth. One of the decisions you, as a buyer, will be making ahead of the home-search process, is whether or not you can afford to make up the difference between what you contract to pay for a house (higher amount) and what an appraiser says the home’s value is (lower amount). There are also acceptable ways to provide the appraiser with information about the neighborhood and local sales that she might not have access to through standard channels when she is doing her work.

There are many expenses that a buyer will have in closing a purchase transaction. Some of them the seller might agree to pay, but many more will be your responsibility. Someone will pay for title insurance. Someone will pay title company and county recording fees. Someone will pay loan origination fees. Someone might even pay for a new survey to be made of the property. These costs are something your REALTOR® will help you grasp before you start your transaction and, if you will be getting a loan, your lender will take them all into consideration when they are looking at whether or not you are a good credit risk for them. They will help you understand the costs of closing a transaction.

Part of the transaction cost that is ultimately shared within the selling price by both parties will be paying your real estate broker and the seller’s real estate broker their commissions to cover the work done on behalf of both you and the seller. This is another reason for you to hire carefully when you hire a REALTOR® to work for you- the commission cost is not insignificant, and you want to make sure that the brokerage you hire will serve your needs to the fullest, and then some.

I know I have given you just a bare outline of what goes on from the buying side. In other posts, especially those tagged ‘buyers’, you can see more specifics that might answer some more of your questions. I keep writing these posts as a service to the community, because I know the feeling from my own pre-licensing days of being completely confused and in the dark about what was happening during my own real estate transactions. I want to shed as much light as possible on a complex and important topic.  I always welcome suggestions left in the comment section of this post, or other posts on this blog.

If you are reading this on a device other than a computer, scroll down to see links, more pages, and to subscribe to this blog by email.

Cost-savings for Borrowers

~ Lynn Bridge ~ Leave a comment

I love sending my home buyers who are planning to borrow to an in-person local lender. I love the personal touch. However, in the world of online everything, I do have a great online option for my homebuyers: Keller Mortgage. Keller Mortgage is new, and our Southwest Market Center has been the testing ground. It is licensed only in Texas right now, but will soon expand. The first loans have been closed speedily, with rates equal to, or better than, competitors’ rates.

Keller Mortgage is partnered with Keller Williams agents as a way of producing a product for our clients that is more than competitive. The business model is based on the best of the traditional lender model (talking with actual people) and the best of the internet model (very low brick-and-mortar costs because the loan center is all in one place), plus an advantage of no advertising and marketing costs. This means that Keller Mortgage is able to charge the borrower no fees AND the borrower gets a credit of $1000, which can save the borrower several thousand dollars on a closing. Other lenders may do something similar, but then raise the interest rate on the loan to make up the difference. The Keller Mortgage business model is based on a large volume of loans from the clients of its many agents, as well as the re-sale of the loans after they are closed.

Keller Mortgage is offering other advantages, too, including starting the appraisal process as soon as the home-buying contract is signed. If you decide not to buy the house during your option period, you do not pay the $450 or so for the appraisal; Keller Mortgage does. Also, you can be underwritten for the loan even before a home buying contract is signed, saving you time in the trip through the closing process. (In multiple offers, this can look good to a seller whose home you are hoping to buy!) You can be underwritten in 24 hours from the time you get all the requested documents to the lender.

I have installed the Keller Mortgage app on my phone and I can use it to help you compare rates to make a decision about which lender you are most comfortable using. If I list your home to sell it, a potential buyer using Keller Mortgage for a home loan could financially make the difference for that buyer between being able to buy at your price point or not. It is certainly something to think about.

IMG_3807

AJ Berzsenyi of KW Mortgage explaining the company’s value for clients

Ideas For Getting Into the Home-buying Market

~ Lynn Bridge ~ Leave a comment

Hello, First-time Home-shoppers, Parents of First-Time Home-shoppers, and Friends of People Who Don’t Have a Lot of Money to Spend!

On Friday, I met with a lender for Guild Mortgage, Joani Wilson, and she gave me the run-down of Austin-specific programs and area loan types that benefit people who are figuring out how to buy a home in the hot Central Texas market.

Joani Wilson and her borrower booklet

A USDA loan (United States Department of Agriculture) has income requirements on the borrower, as well as property location requirements. This is a loan oriented toward middle-income borrowers. USDA loans are meant to keep rural areas developed and thriving, so that is why there is a property location requirement. The maps on the USDA website linked above will be your first stop to see if a property qualifies for this type of loan. 100% financing is available and the seller is allowed to contribute up to 6% of the amount of the loan toward closing costs, so a buyer could make the purchase with virtually no money up front.

There are also various down-payment assistance programs in the area, so it is possible to get into a home using various FHA (Federal Housing Administration), VA (Veteran’s Administration) , and even conventional loans coupled with the DPA program.

Down payment assistance in Austin

Hill Country Home Down Payment Assistance Program for any area in Travis County

From the website:

  • Per FHA guidelines, all homebuyers qualifying for down payment assistance with credit score of 660 or higher will receive 4% of the original loan amount to be used for down payment and closing costs, which includes lender compensation of a 1.5% origination fee.
  • Per FHA guidelines, all homebuyers qualifying for down payment assistance with credit score ranging between 640 and 659 will receive 5% of the original loan amount to be used for down payment and closing costs, which includes lender compensation of a 1.5% origination fee.
  • The origination fee can be paid by the borrower or the seller.
  • This assistance is a gift/grant and does not require repayment at any time.

Southeast Texas Housing Finance Corporation (known as “SETH”)

Right now, from the website:

  • Current Rate / Offerings Lock Rate FICO     DPA     Effective Date 
    GOVERNMENT
    Option 1– FHA 5.50% 660 w/6% 3/9
    Option 2a– FHA 5.00% 660 w/5% 12/15
    Option 2b– FHA 640 or 660 w/Manual UnderWriting 640 or 660 w/4%
    Option 2c– FHA w/Manual UW 640-659 w/3%
    Option 3– FHA 4.875% 660 w/4% 4/10
    Option 4a– FHA 4.50% 660 w/3% 4/10
    Option 4b– USDA-RD, VA  640
     CONVENTIONAL-FREDDIE MAC
    Option 5– HFA Advantage 5.125% 640 w/4% 3/22

Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs 

I enjoyed visiting with Joani because she is so enthusiastic about her job, and she obviously enjoys figuring out how to get people into homes.

 

 

Interesting Interest

~ Lynn Bridge ~ Leave a comment

I asked a broker friend what he thought my topic should be for this day, and he suggested that I should re-visit the extreme home loan rates of the 1980’s and 1990’s. I remember those days, so I got excited about the suggestion and here we are.

Interest rates of 20% or more sounds crazy today, but there was a time when it was reality, and we all took notice when someone found a home loan at only 18%. In a nutshell, the cause of such high interest rates was the Fed’s response to mounting inflationary pressures through the 70’s and 80’s. It kept raising the rates at which banks could borrow money, which trickled down to consumer-oriented loan rates.

The economy was not as global then. A global economy tends to keep a lid on prices because there is always someone willing to do the job or make the gizmo for less, somewhere on the planet. A more insular economy means that prices respond to internal national pressures for higher wages and more expensive products. Rising prices mean inflation. The way the Fed cooled down rising prices in the 80’s was to put a lid on the economy through making the cost of borrowing money to do business higher.

We haven’t seen the super-high interest rates in decades because, due to the different structure of the economy now, inflation hasn’t been much of a threat.

I found one blog associated with a commercial website that did a great job of explaining the 20th Century history of home loans.

In the early 1900’s, a typical loan structure was 50% down, and a 3-5 year payment on interest only followed by the entire principal due at the end of that time. Needless to say, you had to be pretty wealthy to afford a home.

summer home in walpole
Circa 1915. You needed a lot of cash to build this home!

In the 30’s, because of the Great Depression, there wasn’t much money to loan and not very many people could afford a home loan anyway. The federal government decided that more people should be able to buy homes and that this was a good way to promote the health and welfare of families, thereby promoting the health and welfare of the nation. The government gave birth to the Federal Housing Administration, which gave birth to 30-year mortgages and amortization.

Freese ranch house being built.
Home under construction in about 1940. A home loan was entirely possible by then.

The great story of mortgages and increase in homeownership in the U.S. goes on through the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s in which the government and private institutions invented more ways to make money available to those institutions to lend to consumers. There have been perilous instruments such as ARMS and wraparound loans and subprime mortgages that helped some consumers get and keep the homes of their dreams, but created nightmares for many others who defaulted on their loans.

In times of high inflation, it makes sense to borrow money, even at a high rate of interest, to buy the most expensive house you can because the money you are using to pay back the loan is worth less and less as inflation rises. With the relatively flat rate of inflation we’ve been experiencing for some time, this strategy makes no sense, since you are paying back money that is worth about the same as the money you borrowed in the first place.

So, what’s with our gently rising interest rates now? Compared to the past, the current home loan rates of approximately 4 to 4.25% still seems pretty small, don’t they?

Here are a few more websites that are themselves a few years old that I found helpful in explaining the 1980’s that I still remember.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/making-sense/what-led-to-the-high-interest/

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/the-market/remember-when-what-have-we-learned-from-80s-interest-rates/article24398735/

http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2010/03/volcker_recession

And, I can’t recommend enough this easy read on the modern history of home loans:

http://bebusinessed.com/history/history-of-mortgages/