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Is it a good time to buy a house?
Posted by angelascheps • 12/22/08 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: buy a house, mortgage, real esate
I'm a mortgage specialist and would like your opinion?
User Comments
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If you are a mortgage specialist, why do you want my/our opinion? -
Just want to know how people feel about buying a home now in this economic climate. Helps me know my clients better.
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if i were able to get decent financing and i didn't already own one, i would absolutely purchase a home right now. low prices, much inventory and aren't interest rates the lowest they've been in years?? prices are low enough around me that a house payment w/a decent loan and decent credit, the mortgage payment would be equal to rent around me. -
Is it a good time to buy? Certainly. Is it a market for ME to buy? No. -
I wouldn't buy a house now unless it was an extreme bargain; all indications are that values are going to continue to decline, which means that it would be very easy to end up upside down on a mortgage on property that seems like a good deal today.-
And make your financing 50% LTV.
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Protection against a bad mortgage maybe, but not against a losing investment.
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the only constant in real estate is the market will always go up and down, up and down. i am upside down on my home right now and i am okay with that because i know at some point it will go back up. my payment isnt that of which we cannot afford and i dont have a loan that adjusts. so i am okay with the upside down for a while.
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I'm a Real Estate Agent and I say yes and no. Yes, if you have a stable job, both spouses possibly work, you have money to put down and can get a low interest rate and good scores. VA is down to 4.75% and going to 4.5% they say.
And NO, if you you don't have a job, don't have any money down, have very low scores. If your looking for something for nothing, Don't bother. And people! don't buy what you can't afford. Especially if you have kids. Some people would rather spend all their money, struggling on a big mortgage than save for their kids and their own future....wow this is the most I've posted ever on BC. -
destinedforwhat is right: the only constant in the real estate market is that it will go up and down. In the late 80s the real estate market in California turned upside down, followed by huge bubble. When the bubble burst, things slowed down again, followed by another huge bubble. My little (1324 sq ft) ranch house in a blue collar neighbourhood, purchased for $89K in 1982, sold for $435K in 2004. The house went under water twice during that time, but ultimately sold for far, far more than its initial purchase price.
Anyone who can afford to purchase a house should do so now. It doesn't matter if the value drops...it is only a loss on paper that is sure to be followed by recovery as the economy improves and then into the black as the economy recovers. Yes, you can wait for the prices to drop further, but you may well miss out on the house of your dreams.
Buy the best house you can afford...best quality finishes, big rooms, etc., and go for the best neighbourhood you can afford because when the day comes that you want to sell that house, those things will be worth money.-
It all depends, then, doesn't it, on how long one would want to keep the house, and at what life stage one finds oneself. I don't know what it is now, but a couple of years ago the average turnover time on a house was seven years; I don't have a crystal ball, but I'd be surprised if property values were back up within seven years. That means a house might be a good long-term investment (assuming values will rise beyond current levels in the foreseeable future, which for many reasons may not occur), but might be a bad move for someone purchasing a starter house and knowing they're going to outgrow it, someone nearing retirement, someone who isn't sure he'll be in the same geographical location 5-10 years from now, etc. etc. -
If I was living in the States and had the money to buy, I'd be working the angles to buy as many properties as I could right now...and I'm past 60.
I own two properties here and we are presently working on plans to build on the property we presently live on...we have a double lot and are going to add a rental unit (duplex or maybe a 4 plex) on the extra land.
I can't speak for your part of the country, but I lived in Silicon Valley for 30 years, where the economy is a roller coaster, regardless of what the rest of the nation is doing. I bought my first house...a new "starter house," in a deep, deep recession and sold it two years later at a 50% profit: we went from desperate times where whole families were losing everything moving into homeless shelters to seeing bidding wars on houses, all in less that two years. My next house I bought in an economic upswing in an older, somewhat shabby neighbourhood that I reckoned was about to get gentrified because the houses were spacious and well-built, and they offered better value-for-money than the little cracker box I had just sold. And I was right: the house more than quadrupled in value in 10 years and even though I had to sell it in a slow market (divorce), I still made a fat profit on it.
None of us have crystal balls. There are no guarantees in life, either. And it is unrealistic to expect to go through life without taking risks. OK, so the starter house may be too small in a couple of years...will the apartment be any bigger? Will the family have any equity in the apartment that they can apply as a down payment on a bigger house? OK...so someone gets laid off or transferred...sh!t happens...that's how life is. My friend Barb got caught in one of those downswings and had to sell her house for less than she paid for it: economy went into a slide, housing market crashed, her husband got laid off and had to take a new job 150 miles away. They tried renting it out, but the tenants trashed it. Eventually they sold at a loss. But they bought a house in their new town and it is now worth several times what they paid for it, despite today's falling values.
There are no guarantees of prosperity, but if you don't take any risks, you are guaranteed that you will make no progress towards it. No risk = no reward. NOW is a good time to take a risk as the potential for reward is greater than in a rapidly expanding economy, at least where buying houses is concerned.
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Confucius say: Man who eat many prunes get good run for money.
That's about how I feel concerning current real estate investing.
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