The Fear and Reality of Rates Rising

....I read too much....

When will the sky start falling? It's a question put forth nearly every 3 days by some financial expert about the current state of real estate in today's day and age. I read articles constantly about the real estate bubble bursting and unfortunately, none of them are about how to be prepared.
The consensus among those pessimists is 'soon, any day now, like really, it's going to happen, this can't last forever, the real estate bubble will burst.'

But man, doesn't it feel like they have been saying this forever?

I admit I am fairly new to the mortgage broker business. I've never seen a public lender rate at above 6% (which was my 1st house mortage). I can't fathom my parents' mortgage, where they had loans of 11-18% interest. So what's happening?

I'm not financial expert, but here's one thing; Money is not infinite. There has to be balance. This is kept in check by 'inflation'. You may remember discussing this in high school economics or socials class. At one time, governments thought the easiest answer to nobody having money was just to make more. I remember my teacher using Post-Germany WW1 as an example of inflation.

And then I found the Internet using this as an example.

But that was centuries ago! Well, not really. More like only 1 century ago. So this idea of inflation or cause and effect, taken as a moment of time in all known history is relatively new.

The Variable Rate Advantage

                     or To Fix or Not to Fix (your mortgage rate)

One has a fixed rate mortgage, the other is Matt Damon.

Throughout the years, most people have fallen into two groups; those that understand mortgages and those that let their banker figure it out for them.

Okay, there's also that group that just does what their parents tell them to do. 

Then there's that other group that have no idea what mortgage is and what it entails (let's call them 'kids today'). 

So, four groups but I digress.

Let's focus on the first two. 

Nowadays, thanks to the internet and the continuing increase of personal debt, people are doing more research into how they can make their dollar stretch farther. Ironically tv shows, websites, travelling circuses have been set up to help people take control of their debt in between advertisements for flat screen TVs, mobile phones and 0% down brand new cars and limited edition paperback do-it-yourself manuals.