Thanks to a sharp increase in home prices last quarter, millions of homeowners find themselves no longer owing more on their mortgages than their house is worth. This is welcome news on two levels…financially AND emotionally.
What does this mean to you as a homeowner? Well, if you have no plans of selling and moving, possibly nothing other than some peace of mind.
If you’ve been trying to refinance: If you have missed out on refinancing your home to take advantage of the historically low interest rates and to lower your payment, due to having no equity in your home, you now may be able to. Contact me if you’d like to review your mortgage, house value, and potential refinance savings. (Note: If we find you still aren’t quite where you need to be to refinance, the trend in rising home values at least has you on the way! But it’s worth a quick review and I’m happy to review with you.)
If you’ve been thinking of selling: You may now have the freedom to sell your house without being forced into a short sale situation or needing to bring cash to closing!
The problem has been that only those homeowners with mortgages owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac qualified for the government refinance programs, allowing those who owed more than their home was worth to refinance and lower their payments. Unfortunately, this left out many of our clients! Those trying to sell their house were unable to, or did not want to have to liquidate savings to do so. Nor did they want to have to go through the short sale or foreclosure process, damaging their credit.
Increasing home values bring confidence to homeowners, the local economies around them. Overall this is great news. While we don’t want housing prices going up TOO fast (we now see what happens when they do), slow, steady increases in value remind us all what a great investment real estate can be.
Click here to read the entire article from CNNMoney.
Please call or email with any questions, or to review your specific situation. We are here to help you make smart decisions when it comes to owning and financing your real estate.