If you’ve managed to stay financially stable during the recession, then this recession has given you some good opportunities to invest in the future. With stock prices plummeting, you should certainly watch where you put your money, though. How about real estate?

Yes, the bubble that caused so many problems a couple years ago has made it possible for those with down payment cash on hand to take advantage of historically low interest rates. This has been the case for quite a while. Today, though, the interest rates on 30-year loans hit the lowest that you’ve ever seen.

Last week’s interest rate on 30-year mortgages was 4.69, which seemed freaking unbelievable. Today’s rate: 4.58 percent. 0.11 percent may not seem like a whole lot, but every fraction is meaningful when we’re talking about interest rates this low. The news is even better if you can afford to pay off the home in 15 years. The interest rate for a 15-year mortgage is currently 4.04.

What represents a great investment opportunity for some, however, means bad news for others.

The reason that the interest rates keep slipping is because no one is buying houses. That’s bad news for realtors, construction crews, architects, and pretty much the whole economy. The ever-falling interest rate also reveals what many people have feared for some time: that the $8,000 new home buyer tax credit has been inflating home sales.

Frankly, I’m not sure why so many economists find that surprising. The tax credit was put into place to artificially inflate home sales for a while. That was the point. Don’t freak out because something actually worked for a change.

The problem is that the federal government can’t keep sweetening the deal to entice home buyers to go out and spend money. Now that tax-credit time is over, we’re seeing just how stagnant the housing market really is.

Quite frankly, I have a bigger concern. How many of those people who bought homes recently could only afford to do it because of the tax credit? Are they going to be able to continue making payments next year and the year after that?

Hopefully we won’t see an echo of the housing market pop in the near future.

(Image via: Kansas City Real Estate & Investing)