Housing Market Recovery - Reality Or Illusion?

As I look back over the past ten years to when I was a “wet behind the ears” first time home buyer, I have to pause and wonder what if. I vividly remember the fist time, how thrilling it was and at the same time the logical side of me said tread cautiously my friend its a jungle out there! I chose to take my logical sides advice and plunked a 20% down payment on a very modest house that fell well below the maximum income to mortgage payment guidelines. Over the ensuing years I added a couple renters to help me pay down my modest mortgage, while updating and modernizing the fifty plus year old foundation.

I must admit I like everyone else in 2005 got a little bit envious of all my friends/family who were building their “dream” houses and after watching all the “McMansions” popping up like dandelions on a spring lawn, I decided it was time for this guy to live in the fast lane also. I contacted my realtor who was none to happy to take on my new found desire to live the McMansion entitlement lifestyle and promptly went to work. I then contacted my mortgage broker who if I remember right told me with awe inspiring confidence; “Jeff you need not worry about income documentation, all we need is a verbal or stated income verification for your mortgage application”.

Well it seemed logical right? After all I was making a very comfortable income by 2005 and had savings and enough equity in my humble existing abode. I was promptly pre-approved for what I believe was close to an $800,000 mortgage! The bank was willing to throw close to a million dollars at me given my perfect credit score and what I “stated” my income was at that time. I remember thinking at the time, this is CRAZY! I also knew that a TON of other people just like me were licking their proverbial chops thinking they had reached housing ownership nirvana.

Long story short, after looking at a bunch of houses and several months later I decided that 99% of the houses were vastly overpriced and a lot of them were not in the best condition. I knew then in my gut that this housing bubble was just that and the logical side of me prevailed, I can happily say that now in 2010 I’m living in the same modest shack with a very modest mortgage and I actually have equity, wait did someone say that dirty little word equity?

In conclusion, its kind of sad knowing how easily one can get caught up in the world of investment bubbles, its happened time and time before and will repeat itself many times in the future. I know of more than a few friends and acquaintances who got caught up in the hype and are now living in rental properties with a foreclosure on their credit report. So in conclusion, if you are like me and were fortunate enough to dodge this latest test of wants vs needs, good for you! If on the other hand you got burned my the housing market, take this set back as one of life’s many lessons and learn from it. The world will keep on turning, just as day turns into night.

Hi, I’m Jeff Wisuri coming at you from Minnesota, land of 10,000 frozen ponds & frostbite 7-months out of each year! I am a small business owner who discovered the absolute POWER of internet marketing recently and boy am I excited to put this wonderful medium to work! I live in the burbs of Minneapolis and in my free time I get to cuddle with my daughter Sophia who is the love of my life.

I’m here to help any of you who takes the time to click on my blog, http://jeffwisuri.com or my website http://www.fortunewizz.com I take great pleasure in helping/coaching others who have the same aspirations/dreams as I do. Hope to see all of you soon!

Jeff Wisuri