30-Year Fixed Mortgages Looking Good Now

Amid a steady stream of headlines about turmoil in the U.S. mortgage market propelled by rising defaults of subprime loans, home buyers and owners are fast turning to traditional, long-term mortgages for home financing needs.

Thirty-year fixed-rate mortgages provide certainty and security, features that had been of little concern to many home buyers and owners who tapped initially less expensive adjustable-rate mortgages during the housing boom of recent years to buy houses and refinance mortgages.

Now with the housing market in an extended slowdown, in part because so many adjustable-rate mortgages are in default as "teaser" interest rates have lapsed and monthly payments have soared, home buyers and owners are taking a second look at long-term, fixed-rate debt and are liking what they see, according to Wharton School Professor Susan Wachter's U.S. Mortgage Payment Index.

The perception out there is that a year from now, mortgage interest rates will be higher.  It's just a question of how much higher.  Which, when combined with more inventory on the market than in recent years, could make now the best time to buy a home than we've seen in a very long time.

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