Record low mortgage rates don't mean banks are more generous with mortgages

CINCINNATI - Now may look like a great time to refinance or get a new mortgage, with national rates falling to record lows of 3.78 percent and below this week.
      
However, low rates don't necessarily mean there is a good deal waiting for you.

Talk to just about anyone who has gotten a mortgage or a refinance in the last year or so, and you'll hear the same stories: Low rates just about everywhere, with high hurdles to get to them.

One of the newest homeowners on Minot Avenue in Oakley is college instructor Caleb Paull, who just moved into his house last August with his wife and child.

"It wasn't too bad for us. We originally looked at Mount Lookout and Hyde Park at properties that were far more pricey than Oakley. We'd already gone through that process to get a mortgage for something that would have cost more," said Paull.

Paull says he feels lucky to get a mortgage, but he remembers it wasn't easy.

"I wouldn't say that it too longer but there was unexpected paperwork that we hadn't encountered in the past. This was our second home that we purchased," he said.

It's a story that the Home Ownership Center of Cincinnati is hearing from both people wanting a new mortgage as well as those trying to refinance their old mortgages.

"They should try but it is just not as easy as it used to be. That's even for everyone who tries to follow all the rules," said Home Ownership Center director Ric Williams.

If you have a very good credit and work history, Williams says it's definitely worth the extra trouble to refinance now.

"It used to be that if you had a four or a five, you had a great rate and now, you can get a three, sometimes a two-point-something. It's a great time," said Williams.

When it comes to financing homes, banks are more often real sticklers about credit and income.

"We hadn't even begun our new jobs. So we had to submit the paperwork from our old jobs and from our new jobs that showed we were going to have income to cover this, and these are for jobs we hadn't even started," said Paull.

"Credit means more because of the hit that the lending institutions took. Now they pay a lot more attention to everything," added Williams.

If you want some unbiased help in figuring out if you can re-finance or even qualify for a new home loan, contact the Home Ownership Center of Cincinnati .
   
The earlier you start your research, the more options you'll be likely to have in owning a home.