Is It A Great Time to Buy a Home?

As a real estate agent, people should be suspect if I say it’s a great time to buy a home. After all, I’m in the business of selling Daytona Beach and Ormond Beach real estate. The Atlantic magazine, weighed in this week when writer Daniel Indiviglio wrote an article on the subject.

Mr. Indiviglio writes about many of the things that we’ve been talking about:

• Foreclosures putting pressure on prices
• First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit
• Low low mortgage rates

He summarizes nicely, an approach that I would agree with for buyers:

“I think short-term real estate speculation is probably still
ill-advised. Even if home prices have hit the bottom, I don’t think
they’re likely to increase quickly over the next several years. So if
you’re hoping to get in and get out, you might be in for a rude
awakening.”

But if you’re in the market for a home as a long-term investment,
say at least 10-15 years, it’s pretty hard to make an argument against
buying now. Even if we aren’t at the precise bottom, it’s hard to
believe that home prices could plummet much further in most areas. And
even if they did continue to decline a little, the tax credit might
make up for most or all of that decline anyway. For anyone who can find
an especially good deal on a foreclosure or short-sale property, I find
it even more difficult to argue against buying.”

Daytona Beach foreclosures continue at a high rate, but the inventory is relatively low because it’s taking so long for lenders to process foreclosures to conclusion. There are many more short sales available and we believe this is where the best bargains are. The downside is that short sales are much more difficult to bring to conclusion. First it can take a long time for banks to respond to an offer. Then it can take a long time to complete the process.

Foreclosures are much less complicated because the bank is the owner and really wants to sell the property. However, the banks have already gone through the cost of foreclosure, so there is less of a chance on getting a great deal before market price.

Check out the article at The Atlantic here –> A Great Time To Buy A Home?

Here are Mr. Indiviglio’s final thoughts on buying a home now:

“So while it’s never possible to say with full confidence that any time
is the best time to buy a home, it’s hard to see right now as anything
other than a pretty good time to buy. It appears to be a buyer’s market
in every imaginable way.”

Well put!