Saturday, May 20, 2006

First-time Buyers: Is Now the Time to Buy?

Nice succinct story on first time buying in the current market from realty times. The examples are based on less money than it would take to buy here. However, many of my cliets pay $1200 to $1600 in rent every year, year after year and wonder if they should buy. Yikes.

http://realtytimes.com/rtcpages/20060511_firsttimetobuy.htm

Another real estate blogger (the Queen of real estate blogs for her awesome and endless linking)put buying in the following terms. MUST READ!

http://metrodchomes.typepad.com/

What's interesting is Fortune (magazine) looks at and see the housing market like the stock market! It ain't the same. For one, in stock the market when a company whose stocks you own goes down the tube.. you lose your shirt. The value of your stocks could go down to zero or worthless. (I can speak about that from my own experience). Not true in the housing market. People who bought a property four or five years ago, even in today's market conditions, their house worth way more than they paid it for, okay?! And with a property, the value of a property never goes down to zero!
In either case, many individual homeowners have nothing to worry about: They can simply stay put and ride out the cycle. The only thing they'll lose is the opportunity to brag about their paper profits. And in some places, appreciation has been so sharp that a seller could see prices plunge 30 percent and still make a hefty gain.
See that.. That means soon you'll see more buying opportunities on the horizon.

Amen to that

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