Everyone talks about the first time homebuyer tax credit & that home prices are at record lows, thats nice, but I am interested in this headline in Newsday from today: "Mortgage rates plummet to record lows". In the article its reported that the "30-year fixed interest rate fell to 4.69 percent". That makes borrowing money so cheap. To illustrate I went to http://www.mortgagecalculator.org/ and plugged in borrowering $350,000 on a $400,000 purchase at 4.69% and than at 5.69%. This illustrates the difference in 1% interest on a 30 year loan.
At 4.69% the monthly payments are $2,323.55 and the total payment would be $836,476.53. At 5.69% the monthly payments are $2,539.60 and the total payment would be $914,256.26. To be clear, that is a difference of over $200 per month and over $77,000 paid over the life of the loan. Thats a reason to buy now.
