this may be a great time to buy, but it depends on a lot of factors. If I wanted a new, never lived in home, I'd be out there right now shopping. As new construction dries up(it already is) the glut of new homes will begin to fall. As it does builder's will have less and less incentive to deal. Right now they are hurting bad and you can take advantage of their pain As for buying a home from a normal seller. I'd wait. Reality hasn't set in there yet and most couldn't make the deal I'd want even if they couldn't afford to keep the house.
why did you even ask if you weren't even going to listen to what we said? again what state do you live in? that is what matters the most. if you live in texas like me then prices really aren't an issue it is more a matter of getting a great rate on a mortgage.
It seems like the answer to this question like most every question is "it depends." (So ignoring the fact that the house you live in is generally not an investment...) I don't think we're at the bottom yet. I think bottom is around 2010-2012 depending on Fed intervention. If the Fed continues to print we could see a long slow decline or sideways move (which is the same as declining at the rate of inflation). So we have competing forces: lowered prices due to overpricing which is bad for housing vs possible inflation and really low financing rates (if you can qualify) which is good for housing. Well, we can build a spreadsheet to evaluate various scenarios but overall it seems that buying a house in any of the bubble areas would be a poor investment at this time (CA, NY, florida, nevade, etc.) but buying in areas that didn't inflate could be a good hedge against inflation (mostly the red states). --s
Too soon. Another 20 to 48 months of pain, before any clear bottom will be able to be seen with any degree of clarity. Supply and demand = not equilibrium yet. Catching falling knives leads to many wounds.
To me the housing stocks look like they have completed half of a measure move, not bottomed and most importantly, housing stocks react way ahead of housing so even if this were the bottom you would have to add the time from the start of the selloff (jan 06) to now to get an idea when housing itself will bottom i.e. 24 months. Assuming limited securitizatuion a useful fundamental gauge might be price as a multiple of salaries as per the old fashioned banking yardstick. Housing markets aren't at bottom until anybody talking of operating in the sector is regarded as mad. We have not even seen the first wave of buyers in the wings coming in, and usually the go from congratulating themselves on their bargain to cursing themselves for buying too early.
bubbles, tend to give back all the gains of the bubble if you look at the housing builder stock charts, many of them did just that
I am doing just that. Perfect timing in my view. 4 acres, small, weekend place. I choked on the mortgage rate lock in but you can get good loans now. Banks willing to lend~ stoney ~stoney