[SpaceGhost79]

Not sure how houses in Marquette are selling, though I imagine it's the same as the rest. Some houses I've seen on the market for a year or two now. One, in fact, I used to rent a room in, originally had their selling price at $135,000 may a year, 1 1/2 years ago (which I thought was ridiculously high) and they've lowered their price all the way down to $90K and still haven't sold.

As for condos in Marquette County, HORRIBLE. The Mining Journal had an article yesterday showing that in the past two years there were 161 condos built and more than 80% of them were still for sale at the end of December 2008 (occupied or vacant). So naturally the city of Marquette sells part of Founder's Landing to a local group to... build more $500K+ condos!

[magellan]

Originally Posted by Snootylooter

I'm a real estate agent in SW Michigan (Kalamazoo). Things are picking up and I am selling homes! If priced right, and staged well, there are buyers out there ready to buy. Outstanding interest rates, tax credit incentives, and the advent of spring is bringing some buyers out of hibernation at last!

A buddy of mine in the mortgage industry told me 30 year fixed rates are down to 4.65%, and may go lower. We got in about 6 years ago at 5.25%, and I never thought we'd get an opportunity to refinance, but here we are. Basically for $350, we can knock $20,000 off our total interest due or knock $120 off our payment, take yer pick.

If you're in your mid to late 20's, just renting and looking at homes right now, it's like resetting the clock back to the 1970's.

[robwmu]

Originally Posted by magellan

A buddy of mine in the mortgage industry told me 30 year fixed rates are down to 4.65%, and may go lower. We got in about 6 years ago at 5.25%, and I never thought we'd get an opportunity to refinance, but here we are. Basically for $350, we can knock $20,000 off our total interest due or knock $120 off our payment, take yer pick.

If you're in your mid to late 20's, just renting and looking at homes right now, it's like resetting the clock back to the 1970's.

How do you refinance for $350???

[magellan]

Originally Posted by robwmu

How do you refinance for $350???

You just pay for the appraisal fee and roll the closing costs in. You still come out ahead if rates are low enough compared to your current rate, and if you plan to stay in your home for a while (we do).

[SpaceGhost79]

Originally Posted by magellan

A buddy of mine in the mortgage industry told me 30 year fixed rates are down to 4.65%, and may go lower. We got in about 6 years ago at 5.25%, and I never thought we'd get an opportunity to refinance, but here we are. Basically for $350, we can knock $20,000 off our total interest due or knock $120 off our payment, take yer pick.

If you're in your mid to late 20's, just renting and looking at homes right now, it's like resetting the clock back to the 1970's.

Yep, I've been looking at refinancing my mortgage, too. I'm 2 1/2 years into my mortgage right now, which was at 6.25%. I can knock that down about 1.5 points today, which would help me out greatly! I'm probably gonna lock in a rate in the next few days. I don't want to sit and wait and hope they keep going lower, because you never know how the market is going to react to all the news these days, and a few times over the past few months I've been watching rates and they've spiked up to 5.25% before coming back down. Anything under 5% is good in my book