If You Can Afford It, Now Is the Time to Buy a Home
By S.B. at Be Thrifty Like Us
As a homeowner who purchased my first home back in January of 2005, I’ve seen the housing market change. When my husband and I purchased our home, housing prices were high.. Now the market has come down, houses are sitting on the market for a while and in some cases, people need to sell fast.
If you have the money for a down payment and good credit, now is the time to buy. I mention the down payment and the credit score, because with the mortgage crisis, lenders are being more careful about whom they give mortgages to. Also, mortgage rates are still pretty low.
I say now is a good time to buy a home because the prices have dropped making it more affordable for people who were priced out during the housing boom. With current prices, you might be able to afford more space for the money or afford a home in a better location.
My cousin was able to buy a solid home that was in pre-foreclosure. The home was well maintained and he was able to afford it because the bank was interested in selling it fast. He just purchased the home in March and is really happy with it. If you are interested in buying a home, you might be able to take advantage of situations where the sellers want to move the house fast.
Because of the current housing market, you can probably negotiate more than you could in the past. You can come in with a low offer and hope that the seller will come back somewhere in the middle. With the current housing market, you probably won’t run into the bidding war situation that was happening during the housing boom.
I’ve also seen homes that come with special perks like home warranties. In this housing market, they are throwing in a lot of extras to move properties. Keep an eye out for these and negotiate for those special perks.
If you’ve got your down payment and can afford it, go for it. Don’t rush into any home purchase. Enjoy the process of looking at homes and negotiating!
I have to laugh at this–Our home sold in NC, and we cannot find a home in the Louisville area, where we have to move! We’ve put in offers on 3 homes–None will even come down $10000! And, to make it more interesting, one even required a $37000 deposit for earnest money! Needless to say, we haven’t rented since 1995, but we will be now…I think that if you don’t need to be picky (we have 3 young kids), you might be on the right track, but here’s the deal–Most folks just aren’t taking the hit. The homes that are selling are the ones who do take the hit (like our family). However, everyone else is still in a perpetual holding pattern, assuming that prices “will be better next year.”