Unless you have been living under a rock you know that the economy isn’t very good. More specifically, the housing market is a mess and has taken a real beating for the last several years. Places like Vegas and Phoenix have become literal dens of abandonment. Large portions of entire allotments have empty houses. Houses that were once homes to families living very different lives. People have left their homes, and simply walked away. They cannot afford to live there anymore.

So now we have all of these empty homes that are not being paid for, have been neglected, and home owners who simply cannot afford to pay anymore. As unemployment rose, many people were losing their jobs because of closures, shutdowns and down sizing. Most people want to own a home and they want to be able to pay for it. Once you are jobless, it makes it pretty tough to continue.

There are ways that things can be turned around. The market has been showing signs of life. One example is the sheer numbers that people have to work with.

A few years ago, the government had a tax break that basically paid all first time home buyers $8,000 back. It was a real nice deal, and many people took advantage of this benefit. Come full circle – from that time until now, the interest rates have come down far enough that anyone can get a house and save. It has been reported that the savings on a $200,000 home from the difference in interest rate from  the days of the $8,000 benefit to now reach about $80,000. So, when you compare $8,000 to $80,000 – there is no comparison. People ought to be lining up around block for this deal. They did for $8,000.

The problem is, people are uninformed. Everyone knows that interest rates are down. They just have not done the math to extract out what that means for them. Once people realize this, they cannot believe the numbers. Some real estate agents are latching on to this information and are running with it. Those who are, have reported some success. The $8k story was hyped by the media, so a lot of people heard, and many people acted. The $80k story of savings is not being talked about at all, for sure not in the media. It’s still exists, and it needs to be shared.