Over the last ten years we have seen the air let out of the market. Property values declined and mortgage backed securities had collapsed, new housing starts were down and in general, buying a home was just not a good investment.
We have all heard the saying “Buy low and sell High”. Well it is true in any market. Since the collapse had bottomed out we all new the market was going to rebound at some point. Well guess what, that point is here. All of the research we do now shows market values increasing across the board. Considering how far the market dropped, there is a long way up for the market to find stability.
What does all this mean to me?
It means if you don’t own a home now, you should give very serious consideration to buying now. There is every likelihood that the home you do not buy today will be as much as 10% higher in value next year. That means 2 things to you. One, if you had bought that house today rather than next year, you would have 10% equity in that home this tie next year. Two, if you wait to buy that home next year, you will pay 10% more for that home than you would have had you bought it today.
There is nothing more frustrating than watching the home you really like increase in price each year that you wait to pull the trigger.
I remember my good friend finding the home he liked in 2000. He thought it was a little out of his price range so he said to himself, “I’m getting a raise next year, I will buy it then”. He got his raise, but the price had gone up again by the time he was ready to but. This happened to him 3 or 4 times before he finally bought the home in 2004 for nearly $50,000 more than it had been listed originally. He paid $50,000 more than he needed to and he lost that same $50,000 in the equity that had accumulated over that same period of time.
We are in a very similar market now, except that the increases will be more and longer over the next few years because of the depth of the fall in the market from 2007 until now. Don’t be like my friend, get in the market, change your life for the better. Don’t live with regrets and “what could have been.” Explore your opportunities and take plunge into homeownership, the water has never been more perfect.
