Regardless of the low rates, the demand for housing is still weak and unstable. Actual sales are actually lower than the sales forecast, and prices are still dropping. The low interest rates permit lenders to offer their best deals, while borrowers are experiencing a difficult year in terms of meeting the criteria for lending. Still, some home buyers are able to take advantage of the low mortgage rates.

However, these rates are not helpful for a large portion of potential home buyers. This is because they can’t take advantage of the current rates because banks and lenders have tightened loan rules and credit standards. Even with the low rate, loan applications dropped 4.3% against previous week. The same goes for refinance applications, which went down by 5.2%.

In England, the average mortgage rate payment is 494 Euros a month, making it their best mortgage deal in a decade. Records from ten years ago showed that 2008 had the highest mortgage rate. It appears that home buyers could actually cope with England’s base rate should there be any changes on the interest rates or circumstances. Those who would grab the low mortgage rate said that they already have plans in case the rates go up again. Their strategies are cutting down “lifestyle” expenses such as clothes, shoes, holiday trips, dining out, etc to balance mortgage increase. The Bank of England’s forecast is that lenders will widen their mortgage range followed tougher and stricter lending rules. The Bank’s latest survey found that lenders are designing a better deals made especially for small-time depositors. Small-time depositors are first time buyers and this new great deal will somehow help them acquire property. Nevertheless, lenders believed that overall approvals for loan application may drop due to low credit approvals brought about by tighter loan rules following unstable economy and euro crisis.

It dies seem that there are a few states including Florida where the banks are attempting to “buy back” properties from home owners but I haven’t seen a lot of activity or press on this attempt. There also is an uptick in the amount of foreclosures and many say this is due to back log that happened from the robo signing debacle early last year.

But what disturbs me the most in all this is the Federal Reserve’s participation. Whether you like Ron Paul or not he is bringing a lot of things to light about the validity of the Federal Reserve. There seems to be no accountability in place to audit and “see where the money is going”, which is a gross oversight of our government that should be corrected.

I challenge you to find out what part the Federal Reserve played in the recent crisis. I also challenge you to find out how the banks, who supposedly lost millions if not billions of dollars, have made money when they are losing so much in housing and credit cards based on the current economy. The numbers do not add up. My dad was a math teacher and one thing he used to say was this; “Numbers DO NOT LIE!”

America needs to get at the bottom of the numbers game and find out what is really going on. Though it may not affect you this time, your name might be on the list the next go round if we don’t stop it now.

Ask questions, ask questions and ask more questions until our representatives make it a point to get us the answers.

I am amazed when I ask certain people why they think the way they do and they can’t answer me other than recite what they have heard on the news or TV talk show entertainment news program on the left or right. You know what I’m talking about so why name them?

Instead of digging to see if what is being spouted is true, many of us swallow hook, line and sinker to believe what are sometimes ball-faced lies designed for us to roll over and let the powers that be simply fillet us! And it is much deserved since we don’t ask questions and challenge much in our world anymore.

Well, you might like getting filleted but I don’t. I am a bit cantankerous and skeptical about just about everything. I wasn’t raised to be this way when it came to my country but from what I have observed over the past 20 years there’s not much I believe that comes out of anyone’s mouth that holds an elected office. I have been teased and hammered a few times by friends and family because of this and it’s okay because I can take it.

However, I feel somewhat vindicated at last after reading Mike Lofgren’s article Goodbye to All That: Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult.

For all my Democrat friends and family members that think Mr. Lofgren’s information is all about the Republican party, I assure you it is not. This has enough rot to go around to all parties including the one with the label Tea.

Here’s how the article starts just to give you a taste.

Barbara Stanwyck: “We’re both rotten!”

Fred MacMurray: “Yeah – only you’re a little more rotten.” -”Double Indemnity” (1944)

Another favorite passage with regard to the so called “debt ceiling” is below.

“The debt ceiling extension is not the only example of this sort of political terrorism. Republicans were willing to lay off 4,000 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) employees, 70,000 private construction workers and let FAA safety inspectors work without pay, in fact, forcing them to pay for their own work-related travel – how prudent is that? – in order to strong arm some union-busting provisions into the FAA reauthorization.

Everyone knows that in a hostage situation, the reckless and amoral actor has the negotiating upper hand over the cautious and responsible actor because the latter is actually concerned about the life of the hostage, while the former does not care. This fact, which ought to be obvious, has nevertheless caused confusion among the professional pundit class, which is mostly still stuck in the Bob Dole era in terms of its orientation. For instance, Ezra Klein wrote of his puzzlement over the fact that while House Republicans essentially won the debt ceiling fight, enough of them were sufficiently dissatisfied that they might still scuttle the deal. Of course they might – the attitude of many freshman Republicans to national default was “bring it on!”

It should have been evident to clear-eyed observers that the Republican Party is becoming less and less like a traditional political party in a representative democracy and becoming more like an apocalyptic cult, or one of the intensely ideological authoritarian parties of 20th century Europe. This trend has several implications, none of them pleasant.”

If you don’t like getting filleted you might want to read it. It’s long and worth every word.

Yet the reality is Nashville is doing well comparatively. There has been a rumbling as of late that more and more transactions are for retail residential properties and not distressed properties that have been the dominate transaction for awhile now. The reason this is good news is it means people are now looking beyond the “deal” to get homes they want to live in right away. It also means that sellers have a chance against the glut of distressed sellers and foreclosed properties.

While there are still a lot of bank owned properties and homes that have agreements for short sales, the banks are so far behind on many of these transactions that buyers tire of waiting and turn to buying homes that are ready to be bought and moved into quickly. This is unfortunate for the properties that are sitting on the market and wasting away. In fact, more and more homes that have gone through the process of foreclosure have to go through mold remediation before selling because they have sat without proper air ventilation. This is a cautionary tale for those waiting on these types of homes to buy.

So while there are plenty of supposed “deals” on the market, it looks like sellers are once again viable options for buyers who are ready to purchase and move in quicker than later in the Nashville, Tennessee area.

A recent study showed that mortgage rates have dropped by as much as 5.6 percent. FHA loans have increased as well, and during the month of April this may have led to the decline in home mortgage applications. Luckily, the 30-year fixed mortgage rate declined in the same month, but this may not be enough to pull the housing market out of its slump. Americans are still experiencing high volumes of unemployment, and low interest rates may not be enough to encourage Americans to purchase a home. Without buyer’s confidence, homes may continue to stay on the market for many months. Hopefully the economy will continue to recover and the housing market will be positively affected by renewed buyer confidence. Time will tell during this unpredictable period for our nation.

The housing boom occurred in the mid-200s, and that is when we saw a peak in homeownership, when people felt good about buying and owning a home. Programs like the homebuyer tax credit have helped lift the rate of ownership slightly, but not enough to pull us out of the housing slump. Since then, the biggest peak was in 2005, when the homeownership rate was at 69.1 percent. Rental rates have also declined too, in a frightening statistic that reveals that US economy is still on its long road to recovery. It’s important for Americans to feel good about buying their own homes, and to have a sense of ownership that comes with that decision. However, with the shaky economy keeping Americans cautious about taking on more debt, the housing market continues to loom in a state of uncertainty.

Because of the unexpected move last week by the Fed, (they bumped up the Fed Discount Rate ¼% which is the rate they charge member banks to borrow) the  signal is one of confidence that the banking crisis may be close to over. This encourages banks to borrow from one another instead of the Fed. It also signals to the market that the Fed is okay with rates inching up a bit to head off any inflation the recovery may be generating.

Even though it may mean slightly higher rates, it should be viewed as a good conservative move on the part of the Fed to avoid having to hike rates drastically later. This means things are looking up. While waiting to purchase a house will mean missing the lowest prices and interest rates that will be available this year, it is a good thing that the overall economy is starting to show definite signs of recovery. If the time is right for you to buy, now is still the time.

Employment numbers coupled with other fiscal factors impact interest rates, and while most would think that keeping interest rates as low as possible is the goal, ultimately, it is not. When the economy is rocking at a healthy pace, interest rates are around 8%. Currently, the Fed is doing quite a few things to keep rates low to get the housing market moving along because a healthy housing market, most of the time, is also needed to have a healthy economy. We will all have to wait and see if everything that has been done will actually work to restore jobs and a health economy.

This may seem like a really bad deal but most economists believe that a healthy economy should have a working interest rate of somewhere between 7 and 8.5%. If were buying a house in the early eighties you would have given your right arm for an interest rate in the 8’s because many of us were paying 12 to16% in that rough economy. As much as I don’t want any of us to go back there I do think it is important to put things into perspective and realize that our economy will not grow unless rates eventually go up to a healthy place. Investors don’t want to invest if they can’t make money so eventually, it has to be a win, win for everyone.