Of course! As mortgage guidelines continue to tighten less people can purchase homes. Also as people lose their homes they too are forced to rent.
Whenever a poor economy presents itself people are scared to liquidate cash reserves and commit to a mortgage loan. Pretty soon everyone will be forced to put a down payment on a home as the House and Senate agreed on a bill "HR3221" that finally will ban the use of seller funded down payment assistance on FHA loans leaving only VA and USDA as the only 2 remaining "No Down Payment" loan options available. Both of these loans come with restrictions that make them unable to be used by the majority of the United States. Then you have lenders continually tightening up on risk.
With that being said it is undoubtably a great time to invest and retain property as rentals!
And yes the increase for applications surely is related to the struggling economy, higher gas prices, and inflation.
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Greg PhillipsManager Fairfield Mortgage Company"Servicing all 50 states"Web: Home Forums Blog