Imakeholesinu wrote:I think we need a separate topic for this but I'll wait for a mod to move this out of the thread.
Yes, I'm in the market. Met with my lender this evening and we talked worst case scenario. Definitely going with an FHA loan (30 year fixed) Highest interest rate I was looking at was 6.5% but here's the kicker. Reason why it is high is because of my Credit score. Credit score is high because Experian, Trans Union and Equifax don't know how to tell Social Security numbers and Middle Intials from one another. Thus I have all of my dad's CC's on my CR. I will be calling to have this taken care of, then hopefully it will boost my score a bit higher during the next cycle and hopefully get me a better rate on a loan.
I told the lender I don't want anything over $110,000 so hopefully my payments will be around $800-$875 if I come up with the 3% down-payment which is definitely doable in the situation I'm currently in.
Fuck me, 30 year fixed? I only wish I coulda done that when I bought my house. I was able to get a rate of 4.5% fixed for 5 years and I woulda gone as long as they let me. I'm never gonna see it fixed that low when I renew in a year and a half. Because of that low rate, my weekly payments, and overpaying by $40 a week, I've actually got right around half of my mortgage (included taxes) payment every week going directly to principle. At this rate, I'll have my house paid off in another 15 years (been there for just over 3). When I have kids and I have to renew (likely around the same time) there's no way I can keep up that pace. Being able to lock in that rate woulda helped a lot though.
I live 40 miles west of the Toronto area and you can't even get a small condo for $110,000 where I am. Where I am it's exactly the opposite, our market has been going insane for the last 5 years or so. When I purchased 3 years ago (well, over 3 1/2 when I finalized the offer; took over 4 months later) it was during what was thought was a peak in the market. The very low interest rates were a part of that. Well, my house has gained approx. 18-20% in value since. Great for me now but it's a starter home, I'm gonna get killed when I try to move to another home. I have to watch it and try to catch the market in a downturn. Smaller homes tend to hold their value a little bit better and I'm hoping we've done enough good upgrades to command a decent price.
And I completely agree, the credit companies are the devil's spawn. I fucking hate the very idea of a central credit bureau, all it does is help the financial institutions while at the same time punish the consumer. They can make a fucking mistake (they have) and ruin your credit and there's no accountability to make them fix it.
