It's a new Real Estate Market-- 

and there is a lot to learn. 

For nearly a year now, news headlines screamed "the sky is falling" when referring to the mortgage and realty markets.  Well now it isn't just falling; it has collapsed. And with it property values have fallen off the edge, stocks have plunged more than 40% in the past year, and millions of families have been foreclosed, some of them actually "out-on-the street."  "Depression" is now more than a remembrance of a bygone "flapper era. And the entire world is frightened. 

And therein, fear turning to panic and panic leading to ill-advised decisions and finally an out-of-control  herd instinct with government outriders trying new methods every day to stem the stampede                

A new start

The real fact is that Conventional Loan rates stayed lower than they have been in some time... and there is no such thing as "predatory lending" on a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac Program loan.  The other side of that picture is that it is often almost impossibly hard to finance a purchase mortgage, and, because of the huge drop in property values, the refinance loan is mostly a dinosdaur.  And the still-to-be determined change, called "Hope for Homeowners" has passed congress and, if deployed, will offer refinance loans at PRESENT VALUE, UP TO 90% OF THAT VALUE, instead of the purchase value.  In effect, it brings the home owner into today's real world and disposes of the "yesterworld" of inflated values.  And, if it really catches fire, it could be the path out of the woods for home-owning America

Our "recession" spared no one.  Everyone was hurt, mostly homeowners who couldn't get the loans needed to buy or continue in their homes.  Jumbo loan rates skied -- in the unlikely case you could even qualify for one as home values dropped and equities disappeared.  Second loans became as scarce as hens' teeth.  Qualifying became a scary word.

And then came the hotly debated "bailout." No. 1.  And heaven knows how many more we will follow in an attempt to stem the panic and "liquefy" credit so we can get a mortgage again, be able to finance an auto, borrow to make payroll, etc.

NEGATIVE TO POSITIVE OUTLOOK

There is not a whole hell-of-a-lot of good news, but we ensure a negative future if we give in to our fears and let panic and terror replace confidence in our government, our economy and our own ingenuity and perseverance.  As Winston Churchill said in even tougher times: "The only thing to fear is fear itself."  And as a nation, at this moment, we are guilty of aggravating our own troubles by panicking--  be it pinch-pennying when we have no real reason to do so, hiding our assets ouside of our financial system, conpletely losing faith in the elasticity of our banikng and stock brokerage systems, or just simply burying our heads in the sand.

For one thing, unless yo have lost your nerve, if you are going to buy a house, due to the "burst housing bubble," you can afford it; it's a bargain.  Our national euphoria, which led to wild spending, has been stemmed.  We have been forced to work harder and plan more carefully to get by.  In short, the light at the end of the tunnel will be the lesson we learned: "all that glitters is not gold"; a penny saved is a penny earned," "; something aside for a rainy day."  And all those old-fashioned aphorisms our moms and pops and grandmas and grandpas used to drum into us.

And, even if you are in over your head, there are now ways to salvage your investments by fixing bad credit, modifying your present loan, consolidating debt, or, if you must move out, "short selling" your property rather than letting it go into foreclosure and ruin your credit for years to come.

We're Americans.  We always get up long before the "10 count."  And we haven't even hit the deck yet, nor will we if we don't scare ourselves out of our American Way.