5 Reasons To Buy A Home Now
This may be the perfect time to be a home buyer. Owning your very own home is a dream for many people. Unfortunately, over the last five years ownin...
This may be the perfect time to be a home buyer. Owning your very own home is a dream for many people. Unfortunately, over the last five years owning a home has been a real nightmare for homeowners. However, the popping of the real estate bubble has created new opportunities for those who want to own their own home and at a good price. Here are 5 reasons why you should consider buying a home now.
1. Interest rates are low and that may not last forever. Many expect interest rates to increase so the window of low interest rates and low home prices won’t here forever. This could be the perfect opportunity for a home buyer. Real estate prices could be at an all time low with low interest rates makes home ownership very affordable. Depending on your area some homes are selling for a third or a half of what they used to sell for.
2. The real estate market might be at the bottom. Everyone has an opinion but no one knows for sure where the market is headed. Logic tells you that prices may be at the bottom and will perhaps stay there for a little while until the country recovers from the current recession. Don’t bother trying to time the real estate market to the day or month. If your time horizon for owning a home is five years or more than this is a good time to be a home buyer.
3. Down Payment Assistance. In an effort to boost home sales in an area many states, counties and even cities are offering down payment assistance programs. These are grant programs that provide people additional money to put down on a home that will not have to be repaid. The only conditions to these programs are that you buy in a specific area and that you remain in the home for certain number of years. In some states you can combine these programs from each level of government giving you the ability to place a very large down payment on a home and it won’t cost you anything.
4. Build equity. If you can afford the home you live in and your time horizon is long enough you will create wealth through home ownership. If we are at the bottom then prices will eventually start heading up again. It has happened in the past and should happen in the future. Imagine buying five rental properties worth a total of $500,000. Let’s assume you get a 15 year mortgage on all of these properties. In 15 years when the mortgages are paid off and a 4% increase in home prices these five rental properties will be worth $900,471. Not too shabby.
5. Leverage. Right now it is a buyers market. As the inventory of homes decreases this leverage will eventually go away. Most real estate markets are moving towards equilibrium. Home buyers did not have the same leverage that they had a year ago. I imagine a year from now home buyers will have even less control. It is best to buy when the seller needs you more than you need the seller.
People have become apprehensive to own real estate since the bubble burst. That is very understandable. However, like everything, the hard times will pass and prosperity will come. Position yourself to make money when that prosperity shows up.
Marc Rasmussen sells