Study shows North Mississippi is a good area for getting a home loan

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – Buying a house can be a numbers game.

Selling price, interest rates, they all add up, but you may be surprised to know in our area, some of those numbers may be in your favor.

A recent study said North Mississippi is a good area for getting a home loan.

SmartAsset ranked Lowndes, Oktibbeha, Lee, and Tishomingo counties in its top 10 for securing a mortgage in Mississippi.

JTS and Company President Jeff Farnham has been in the mortgage business for over 20 years and knows what drives the market.

“The demand for housing is really up we are seeing mortgage rates continue to remain in a very low territory, so that really continues to get people to want to buy in those kinds of things,” said Farnham.

Industrial development and better-paying jobs have helped keep homes moving.

And Farnham said in this area you can get more bang for your buck.

“You can live relatively inexpensively compared to other places in the world you take a 1500 square-foot home in Lowndes County Mississippi, and it’s $150,000 maybe $135,000 home you take that same home out in California it maybe five $600,000 depending on the market, so our cost-of-living everything’s a little bit cheaper here,” said Farnham.

Doris Hardy said last year the housing market was the best she’s seen in years.

“In my opinion, 2018 was a good year as you know we had gone through four four and a half brutal years during the recession and the recovery was very slow which is really the way we like recovery a slow, steady annual uptick and so it just sort of culminated into people thinking OK we’re on the right track,” said Hardy.

But that success can be a double-edged sword.

“We are down with listings, and we are down with sales. Now you might think are we down with sales because of there are no buyers or are we down in sales because we are short on inventory, and we have experienced a shortage of inventory since 2018, which was a very robust year, and virtually all of the price ranges across-the-board. Clay County, Lowndes County, Oktibbeha so it’s not a shortage of demand is a shortage of supply,” said Hardy.

Hardy said what the Golden Triangle, especially Lowndes Cunty, needs now is new construction. Between 2010-and 2016 the number of new homes being built steadily dropped.

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