Credit where Credit is Due

With the final quarter of the year upon us, it looks like the fall real estate market is going to be a tight one, for buyers. Mortgage applications are up and indicate that demand for homes will pick up over the next forty-five to sixty days or more if applications stay strong which may follow continued improvement in government jobs data. Of course many people are speculating that this demand is/will be being driven by the impending deadline for the $8,000 tax credit and that is probably true.

Great, so we have plenty of inventory, right? True but to some extent many of the best homes of the season sold earlier in the year and the majority of what is still on the market has sat there for quite sometime and is now "picked-over". Of course there are always new homes coming onto the market and thankfully so, in Delaware County alone, Of all homes sold in July, those which sold in zero to thirty days (850) nearly double those sold in 31-60 days (430) and nearly triple those sold by their ninetieth day on the market (305). I would say that it is also true that for the most part, the sellers of homes that are currently on the market are people who have to sell for one reason or another and generally not the traditional "move-up" buyer just waiting to buy a bigger house.

Many people will look back on this "Perfect Storm" of low home loan interest rates, tax credits and low prices and wish that they had taken action. A first good step would be getting your credit report together in preparation for pre-approval; why not do it today?