Consumers are looking at the home mortgage market through jaded eyes as more banks struggle and bad news hits every single day. Although the Federal Reserve has been slicing interest rates on home mortgages, banks are refusing to follow suit and it is getting increasingly difficult to find a cheap home mortgage or one with decent terms.Lee Caprarola, a mortgage banker with Wells Fargo in Somerville, said, “It’s difficult to say if prices are leveling because the behavior of people who choose to sell may be doing one thing, whereas the behavior of people who are forced to sell could be different. For example, I have financed a number of short-sale properties lately, and those prices still appear to be under pressure. I do lots of new construction as well, and builders are using price and/or financing concessions and/or free upgrades, as a way to turn up or down the volume on sales activityJoe Burris, broker-owner of Plainfield’s Sleepy Hollow Realtors, stated, “The real estate market has been dead for us here at Sleepy Hollow Realtors since October, with only recently some activity. (The market) truly is in the buyers’ favor, as the buyers are offering well below asking price for properties and then expecting the sellers to make all repairs if any. Then we hope the bank appraisers will appraise the property for value. It’s like pulling teeth, even if you make a deal. If we are lucky to make a deal — about 40 percent of them die for one reason or another.”
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