When quiet isn't good...

All's quiet on the Western front, and on the Eastern front, and on the Southern Front and on the Northern front. Let's face it, it's just too darn quiet out in the market right now, at least in my little patch. Obviously, The general economic environment plays the biggest role in this market slowdown; however, I believe that confusion has also played a role.

There are so many news stories about so many different programs, with so little actual detail about how they are supposed to work that potential buyers don't know whether to wait or proceed. They don't know which programs they might qualify for or what they have to do in order to qualify. Even worse, the very people that they depend upon to help them understand all of this - their mortgage reps and Realtors - haven't got a clue either, because the implementation details aren't out there yet.

I'm advising anyone who is considering a short sale to go to my Web site http://www.mishortsales.net/ and follow all of the links in the beginning that will take them to articles about various programs or groups to help with loan modification and workout programs. If I read all of this correctly there should be lots of help forthcoming from the banks and others to try to keep people in their homes. The problem seems to be that many of the lenders have no idea what to do either or don't yet have implementation policies and programs set up yet. It's all a giant mess!

If you are a first time buyer, I'd advise you to get out there and find one of the great bargains that is on the market right now. There are lots of articles about the new (for 2009) $8,000 tax incentive for first time buyers, so read a few of them and understand whether you qualify and how to go after that benefit.

If you are one of the majority of homeowners who is not in distress on your mortgage there may still be ways for you to benefit, even if it's just to take advantage of the low mortgage rates. For some who are currently upside down on homes values, some of the programs provide ways to approach your bank about resetting the principal amount on your loan to help get you back to even. Not all banks are enthusiastically pushing that program, as you might imagine, so you'll have to push for that yourselves, if you even qualify.

From what my local mortgage people tell me, we should have enough information by the end of March to begin to see some of these programs taking hold. Hopefully that will do what was intended and get things moving again. Let's all hope so. It's entirely too quiet right now!