Is Financing Going to Get any Easier?

It seems like we have more and more obstacles these days. The Panama City Condo market is showing some great potential and when you really look at the bottom line the issue is now turning to lenders not wanting to loan money. We had a unit on Panama City Beach go under contract, the buyer was putting down 30% and guess what......3 lenders before we got approval!

It's not just here though. It's all across the country!!! Read more below:

Getting a Mortgage Tougher for Buyers

Difficulty in landing a mortgage is keeping many buyers out of the market.At the peak of the housing boom, about 20 percent of the mortgage market was subprime, and nearly 20 percent was "Alt-A loans” or "A-minus" loans, typically offered those with good credit but with high debt-to-loan ratios or little or no proof of income. Both categories are now nearly extinct. That means about 40 percent of the residential mortgage market has all but disappeared, according to David Olson of Wholesale Access Mortgage Research and Consulting."The underwriting has really tightened up," Olson says, "Before, if you could fog a mirror, you got a loan. Now, that's not the case."Nationwide, practitioners say they are encountering more potential buyers who can’t get financing. "Buyers come in with confidence, and once they have talked with a lending practitioner, it's like they've been hit over the head with a ton of bricks," says Dean Moss, an agent at Keller Williams Fox and Associates Realty in Chicago.A study conducted using data from a Reno, Nev., multiple listing service, found that about 30 percent of sales haven’t closed after 90 days. Practitioner Guy Johnson, who analyzed the data, suggests that buyers stay on top of their loans, checking in with their lender frequently to make sure the loan for which they’ve been approved is still the same. "A loan commitment letter," he adds, "isn't really as solid as it once was."Source: USA Today, Anna Bahney (08/05/2008)

Tune in today to www.RandBCoastalRealEstate.com and www.InvestSmarter.com to watch trends and provide feedback on these and other wonderful areas include Destin, Fort Walton Beach, and Pensacola.