ho contact either real estate brokers or mortgage brokers, while having some experience with real estate purchasing and financing, nevertheless, lack the knowledge to approach these activities with confidence.
Real estate sales persons and mortgage specialists working at and out of real estate and mortgage brokerages attempt to educate consumers and allay their anxieties. These efforts vary in content, scope, approach, and effectiveness; however, and the conduct of these activities require the real estate sales persons and mortgage specialists to take time away from their productive pursuits to engage in consumer education.
Consumer education deficits in relation to real estate purchase and mortgage initiation and refinancing are not new. They have existed as long as real property and mortgages have been offered. The explosion of mortgage types, the increasing complexities of borrower qualification criteria, and the sharp rise in real property prices in relation to average income growth, however, has exacerbated these consumer education deficits.
Home ownership rates in the United States, according to President Clinton, are at all-time highs in 1998. At the same time, however, reports are rife that a huge segment of the American population is being "priced-out" of home ownership in the late-1990s (Council of Economic Advisers, 1998). A part of this problem, a very substantial part, lies in the escalating prices for residential housing, especially in the major metropolitan areas where the majority of the population reside in the late-1990s. Another important element in this equation, however, lies in the accessibility of affordable residential mortgages for low- and moderate-income people. A third important element of this issue involves the consumer education deficits associated with real property purchase and financing.
The scope of this thesis was limited to research on the approach to consumer education in real est...