The sky is falling!  I think...wait, maybe its not....
by Kaushik Sirkar, Chandler REALTOR®
Chandler AZ Real Estate

During the boom.  You couldn't go wrong with housing.  50% appreciation per year for the next decade.  Now?  RENT!  Get out of your house before it loses all its value!!

Obviously both of the ends of the spectrum are/were somewhat skewed.  Those of us who kept our heads during the boom knew it wouldn't last forever.  And....wait...am I predicting the future...that house prices won't completely collapse?  Well, thats certainly my expectation.  But my point here is, many frenzies (up or down) are driven by media reports.

Supposedly, we are (nationally speaking) seeing median prices decrease.  But this article from money.cnn.com reports that, according to OFHEO (Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight) suggests that prices are up from the same quarter last year.  HUH?  This is in stark contrast to data from the National Association of Realtors and the Case-Shiller index.  Well, if you read in detail, you'll see that OFHEO calculates 'price changes' differently...where NAR uses median sale price OFHEO uses differences in values when homes are resold or refinanced.

Am I trying to make a prospective reader an expert on how to calculate home price gains/decreases?  HECK NO.  I just want to emphasize a few points.

• Take everything with a grain of salt (it is often never as positive or as negative as the media might portray things)
• Focus on your LOCAL real estate statistics - they are much more relevant
• Stick to the basics if you want to buy a home - don't overextend yourself and the likelihood is over 5+ years, historically speaking, you will not lose money.

Thanks for Reading :)

Kaushik Sirkar, Chandler AZ REALTOR
http://www.homesphx.com