1. How do I get prequalified?

Your mortgage specialist will need for you to fill out an application and check your three credit scores. Once you have qualified by your scores, your income will need to be determined to verify how much of a loan you can qualify for. Credit score requirements constantly change but for the most part you will need a 640 middle score to qualify.

2. How much can I afford?

All underwriters have debt to income ratio guidelines they must go by. Debt includes mortgage note and all other payments that appear on your credit report. As a general rule you are allowed 45 to 50% of your gross income toqualify with. While you may go up to that percentage this doesn’t mean you will want that note that comes with it.

As the real estate market in the USA and the world in general feels the after effects of the global economic downturn the number of home that have been foreclosed on continues to impact the real estate markets. As the bank owned property comes on to the market the perceptions of the buyers is that these homes represent good value and that the banks are really wanting to get the inventory off their books.

Lowball Offers

The number of homes on the market and the perception of the banks willingness to deal with any offer has led to a number of lowball offers from buyers that have actually been accepted by the bank. This then effects the foreclosure market in a number of ways both direct and indirect. The downward pressure on the real estate market as a

A new Harris poll finds that more people would like to live in or near New York City than any other city. San Diego is the second most popular city, followed by Las Vegas. The next most popular cities are Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Nashville, Atlanta, Denver and Boston. The Harris Poll has asked this question almost every year since 1997. New York has been the most popular city in every year except in 1998 when it placed second behind San Francisco.

This reflects the real estate market trends in Nashville TN as during the boom Nashville had a steady growth as apposed to some of the more popular parts of the country and post

I have my self signed up for any breaking news stories from NPR and CNN and occasionally we get some good news that shows some positive signs for the economy and indirectly the real estate market in the USA.

Heres what I got today from NPR!

NPR BREAKING NEWS:

Government Reports $1.3 Trillion Budget Deficit

The deficit was $122 billion less than last year, a modest improvement.

Hopefully, as people see the historically low interest rates, and the signs of the economy slowly improving, the consumer confidence will return. People will start to realise that maybe now is a good time to buy andstart to investigate how the homes for sale trends are developing.

As more and more people start to consider to buy a home and stop renting etc this will fuel

Thirty-year fixed mortgages slipped to 4.27 percent this past week, the lowest on records dating back to 1971, from 4.32 percent the previous week.

A drop in interest on 15-year loans to 3.72 percent from 3.75 percent, meanwhile, was the lowest on records dating back to 1991. Freddie Mac also reported that the five-year adjustable-rate mortgage fell to 3.47 percent from 3.52 percent the prior week, and the one-year ARM dropped to 3.40 percent last week from 3.48 percent.

Its a great time to refi as I have personally done this week with Brand mortgage :) This helped me save about $300 a month. Thanks to the guys at Tennessee Title everything closed smoothly and I walked out of the closing with the same house and a reduced payement!

[SOURCES:

October 7, 2010 - The Williamson County Association of REALTORS® in Franklin TN announced the statistics for home sales in Williamson County, TN for the month of September 2010.

There were 232 residential and condominium closings reported during this period according to figures provided by RealTracs Solutions, the multiple listing service used by REALTORS® in the Middle Tennessee region.
 
The number of single-family residential closings increased by 5.7% percent compared to September 2009, but decreased by 11% percent compared to August  2010 statistics for the number of homes sold in Williamson County. 

The average days on the market (DOM) for residential homes decreased by eleven (11) days for residential and increased by twenty-three (23) days for