Your mortgage and 2009

What to do what to do.  Mortgage rates are at and incredible low right now with some banks offering 4.7% but the standards for qualification have gone way up.  You need a FICO of at least 720 to qualify for the best rates (this is up almost 60 points from a year ago).  You also need alot more proof to even qualify, including a steady job, and with the jobless rate almost breaking 10% now there are alot of people out there that have no recourse.  Personally I would wait until mid next year to see what happens,  Obama  and his crew are probably going to force rates lower at some point to ease the burden on over extended borrowers.  You might also see some "Tax Free" days where you don't have to pay federal income tax,  which is nice since we'll see some more cash flow.

Housing prices are going to continue to freefall until the markets can stabalize themselves,  13% last year and probably another 10% by mid year 2009.  So refinancing your current mortgage with such a fluid index could mean if you didn't do it right you could end up paying more than your house is worth, a bad boat to be in.  So I would hold tight on the refinance.

I'm really looking forward to January 20th and Obama's innauguration, he wants a stimulus put in place that he can push the same day he takes office and maybe we'll finally see some benefit come to us instead of the bloated banks and corporations that we are so gamely supporting with our tax money.  Key words to remember is infrastructure, Roads and Bridges and companies that are part of that sector, if the stimulus passes, stand to have a big influx of cash on hand so we might see some nice stock movement!

Happy New Years Everybody!