Banks Still Lending Money

Morganton – Some banks have failed, some are buying others and the federal government has bailed out some financial institutions.
The Treasury Department and Federal Reserve late Sunday agreed to back $306 billion of Citigroup Inc. assets and invest $20 billion in the ailing bank.
On Tuesday the government announced two new programs providing $800 billion to help unfreeze the market for consumer debt and to make mortgage loans cheaper and more available.
To help revive the economy, the Federal Reserve is expected to lower interest rates when its meets on Dec. 16, its last session of the year. Last month, the Fed dropped its key rate to 1 percent, a level seen only once before in the last half-century.
Vanessa Williams, senior mortgage banker at the Bank of Granite in Morganton, worries that all of the negative news about banks and the economy has scared people away.
“People don’t think the bank has any money to lend,” Williams said.
That, she said, isn’t true.
Williams said conventional financing is still available, and you don’t have to have an extremely high credit rating.
She said there are different types of loans people can get.  Read more from morganton.com here