A lot of people will advise you to buy a cheaper property eg. apartment/condo 1st if you cannot afford landed properties. I think it's still better than paying rental monthly.

But bad news for those investors/properties owner, be prepared for bad tenants who never pay you rental during recessions

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Added on July 30, 2008, 8:17 am
I should say the condition in USA is different from malaysia. They way they released loan is questionable compared to the banks here. So they ended up with a lot of bad debts. 

Correction. The lowest interest rates we have seen to date is at 4.45%, and in long term view it can only go lower.

Personally feel that the rates offered by AIA n ING is a rip-off. PPl who took AIA fixed rate@7++ 5 years ago all regret big time as they pay thousands in extra interest every month today. They all got conned into the -> "BLR is at its lowest today, it will sure go up n the future!!!" pitch 

so N73me, why didnt u took a fixed loan back then?