Historically, rates are still very low. As a matter of fact, they are still low even when comparing out longer than 20 years. If you ask your parents or grandparents, they can tell you that they remember buying homes with mortgage interest rates of 11% or 12% in the 80’s. Credit is also much easier to obtain.

According to Bankrate.com, the current prime rate is 6.00% This is the rate that banks give to their best customers (well, in some cases they give even lower rates)

They are very low, almost historical levels.

So no, don’t get an adjustible rate mortgage, even if they’ll give you a lower initial rate.

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Let me look at my crystal ball, 10%

Because you are not a member of the entitled who have the govt going out of their way to give them what they want without making them accountable. I would guess you work hard and consider your house payment a priority. I would guess that you did not buy a house you can’t afford.

?…….unchanged from what they are now.

No. This buyout is for the banks only. The little guy gets dumped on again. Just another republican scam to save big business at the workingman’s expense !

Adjustable rate loans that are no longer at their teaser rates. Lending guidelines and lie to me loans that qualified hotel room attendants that earn 45k a year for $750,000 mortgages . And real estate prices that continually rose.

hope it helps

High rates weren’t the issue…rates were actually very low, which allowed millions to refinance and pull out cash from their homes, while others bought homes at super low interest rates with next to nothing down. The high home prices led to extreme affordability measures like option arms and 100% financing.

Rates are currently at all time lows thanks to government intervention, but they’ll eventually climb again as the economy improves.

There’s a whole lot more to it, and you’re missing the mark pretty bad. You’ll probably fair quite badly on your book report if you don’t do some more research.

They are quite low now, so you should expect them to do nothing but go up in the future. They could go up and then back down to current levels over 10 years, but I think it is unlikely that you will see them get much lower than they are today.

You won’t have paid the house down a whole lot in only 10 years. The majority of your payment in the early years goes to interest and very little to principal. So you have a logic flaw there. Your only hope in this regard is that the value of the home increases substantially over those 10 years, and while it may I would not base my financial planning on that happening (that’s what got a ton of people in trouble lately).

I’m assuming you are not in a position to make the 10-20% down payment at this time; if you were I’d recommend getting a bank loan now at today’s rates for a fixed rate, and not have that balloon hanging over your head; 10 years will fly by and if you see rates creeping (and home values barely moving, as they usually do) you are going to feel squeezed.

Best thing you can do is live way below your means for a while and save as much cash as you can, so you can get an 80% bank loan and out of this balloon loan as soon as you can, no matter what the rates are at that time. You will then be protected from future increases, and can always modify or refinance if they later drop.

Whatever you do, forget about your “paid down” assumption and reformulate your plans without that because is isn’t going to happen in 10 years or less.