Insiders say there's no time like the present to buy home

Associated Press.

It's sweaty palm time for apartment and home renters.  Nearly 60 million non-owners likely fret about the same thing: Do I continue to rent or leap into the housing market?                             (Click picture for more details)

This inner debate takes on added urgency as interest rates inch upward.  Every moment straddling the do-I-or-don't-I fence adds to the costs of buying.  Even a quarter of a percentage point increase tacks extra dollars to mortgage costs.

Still, there seems little reason to equivocate:  Even with a slight uptick, rates remain low enough to keep home ownership within reach of renters whose collective billions in rent checks build zero equity.  But a surplus of misinformation blocks the path toward the American dream, according to one banking insider.

"Fear of the unknown makes people not move," says Gene Morris, a mortgage lending expert for Bank of America.  "We know half of renters are intimidated by the home-finance process or are worried about large down payments.  The mortgage process is a lot simpler and easier than it used to be."

He suggests renters take a logical first step: Sit down with a financial adviser you trust to separate fact from fiction when it comes to real estate and mortgages.

Misnomer No. 1 is the assumption borrowers must scrape together a huge chunk of money - 15 percent or more - as a down payment.  Not so, says Morris.  Three percent to 5 percent - and in some cases no down payment - is commonplace.

But the supposed enormity of down-payment amounts has taken on urban legend status.  All the more reason, says Morris, to ask someone who knows the ins and outs of down payments.  "It doesn't cost a dime to ask questions," he says.