Home Loans and Mortgages for Residents

Special programs are available for Michigan Homeowners. Just ask your Michigan mortgage professional!

Buying real estate right now isn't for sissies. Financing is a struggle, prices will almost surely keep dropping, and who knows what will happen to your job.

But if you have the money and can hang on to a home for five years or more, there's a huge inventory of properties priced at levels not seen since 2004.

If you expect to live in the house at least four or five years, a fixed-rate mortgage is probably your best bet. Rates are still low, so you can lock them in for the life of the loan. If rates drop, you can always refinance.

If you only plan to stay in the house a few years or so, an adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) can make more sense. You’ll probably save two or three percentage points off fixed-rate loan rates to begin with. The ARM rates are periodically adjusted. If you can find an ARM with an unusually low starting rate -- called a "teaser" rate by bankers -- you can enjoy low payments in the first year or two of the loan and then move before the rate has a chance to ratchet much higher. Make sure that the amount your ARM rate loan can rise after a certain period of time is limited.