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If this is your first time buying a home, you probably have a lot of questions that you would like to ask - and hope there are resources available to get them answered. Luckily, there is a lot of information out there to take advantage of; you just have to know where to look.

To help you out, let's browse through a few tips and resources that may assist you in getting started as a first-time home buyer.

Tips for the First-Time Home Buyer

HUD offers recommendations for the first-time home buyer to take into consideration before going out and doing some serious searching. They are:

1. know what your rights are as a buyer
2. determine how much mortgage you can actually afford
3. create your house wish list
4. locate a real estate broker
5. make an offer based on the home inspection

Resources that Are Available to You

Because going out and buying your own home for the first time is such an overwhelming experience, it's good to know what types of additional resources are out there.

Here are a couple to take into consideration:

• Mortgage Calculators. You can find these on just about any banking website. They offer the resource of letting you know how much home you can afford your first time buying a home, or even if you're on your second or third. By looking at your gross monthly income, monthly debt payments, home interest rate and much more, you can pretty much make your decisions.
• Housing Counseling Agencies. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development offers a list of housing counseling agencies that can give the first-time home buyer access to a ton of information, including mortgage programs, home inspection information, and what to expect at closing time.

If this is your first time buying a home and you want as much success as possible, it's important to get your hands on as many tips and resources as possible.

US home prices in the first quarter fell a record 19.1% compared to the previous year, and is a record-setting drop. Prices in 20 cities fell 2.2% for the month of March, were down 18.7% in the past year according to the Case-Shiller. Thus far, analysts have not seen any signs of an economic rebound, and housing remains unstable for most of the country.

Because most people now owe more than their homes are worth, they are unable to borrow from their home equity in order to finance purchases or pay off bills. This is further causing a drag on the greater economy, which is fueled mainly by consumption. People looking to buy homes for the first time are having trouble securing mortgages with low rates - most require sizable down payments in stark contrast to the loose lending that occurred during the most recent housing boom.

Price declines over 20 cities in the past year:

How much have home prices dropped in your area? Are you having any difficulty securing a low-interest mortgage rate due to tighter lending standards?

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