Has credit truly become tight even for well qualified buyers? Nationwide we are seeing borrowers with marginal credit finding it harder to find attractive lending rates.  It is also getting slightly more difficult for borrowers with good credit who are interested in Jumbo mortgages, or a loan larger than $417K.  We are now seeing rates in some markets as high as 8% on these Jumbo’s up from 6.9% in early July 2007. 

 

Why is that you ask?  Quite simply investors, who generally buy mortgages from lenders, are a bit skittish about buying these loans. They worry about the increased risk that they might not pay off.

 

What does this mean for the Austin Real Estate Market?  We are fortunate in Austin to still have strong and active lender contacts who are getting it done daily for our buyers at great rates, however nationwide we expect the slump to continue to last a little longer and could began to have an impact on the most expensive high end sector of the market that has been fairly immune to the slow down thus far.