Should I wait to buy a Home in Boise?
Advice from my broker, Jon Gosche of Jon Gosche Real Estate. Is NOW the time to buy? In my opinion "it depends" and each peson has different wants & needs for buying. This gives you some food for thought.
Should I wait to buy a Home in Boise? That is a question that I have been asked often lately.
In 2005 I was warning buyer clients about no down payment and come on 1% mortgages. Some of those clients discounted my advice and went ahead and did it buying at nearly the top of the real estate market, leveraging to the hilt. Stating in 2007 I started doing short sales and am continuing to do short sales, unfortunately with some people who we warned about getting in too deep then.
Two years ago I started writing articles on my websites about the coming housing shortage in Boise. Even one year ago there were an abundance of short sales and foreclosures (REO) homes for sale. We were buying homes up to a year and a half ago for less than $100,000 that are now selling or have comparable sales in the $130Ks and even higher. It is hard to find a nice home now in Boise, Meridian and even Nampa and Caldwell for less than $150,000.
In the spring of 2013 it started getting really hard to find homes for sale. If you are looking for a $500,000 or up home you are still ok because they are going still going slow. But $250,000 and under is a different story.
Just like in the stock market, the housing market cycles. When no one is buying no one wants to buy. When prices are rising people start buying. But most people are behind the market. Earlier this year buyers still thought it was a buyers market. They would come in with low offers only to find there were multiple offers on the home they wanted to buy. After failing a few times some get frustrated and quit. Others start coming in at asking price and even others come in with over asking price offers.
We still get people calling and emailing in looking for foreclosures. Too late. The foreclosures have dried up(Except for a few that dribble in). The ones that do come on the market are NOT cheaper than other homes. In fact because there are still people who have gone to seminars, listen to the radio ads, and just have the perception that foreclosures and short sales cost less than comparable homes. WELL IT ISN'T usually true any longer. Many banks are fixing homes up before they sell them. They price them well so they often have multiple offers and then their is a bidding war.
In June interest rates went up 1% for many loans. If you have noticed, now all of the loan advertisements are for 10 year loans for about 4% interest. But the conventional 30 year is 4.5% and higher for some loans. People are going back to FHA and VA loans for 100% financing. But they aren't realizing that that means mandatory private mortgage insurance PMI that NEVER goes away until you sell or refinance costing hundreds of dollars per year.
Now with all the doom and gloom here are the positives: Although home prices are rising they are still well below the peak. Prices have risen fast because there are just not many homes for sale compared to people looking to buy. But the builders have begun again. Newly constructed homes are for the most part now quite a bit higher priced than existing homes. The good news for sellers is they can probably still sell and sell for considerably more than at the bottom. THE GOOD NEWS FOR BUYERS is that homes are still way below their highs. Homes that peaked at $220,000 can still be found for $150,000 to $170,000. Back then the interest rate was higher too. Interest rates are still going to wobble. So if you are on the fence get a lender to qualify you and get ready to lock in a rate on a down day or at a preset point. Don't go to any old website to look for homes. Many of them are sorely outdated and will give you frustrating information. Connect with a great full time Realtor. I have several, male and female young and old and they cover one another so they will be ready when you are. CLICK HERE FOR THE BEST BOISE, MERIDIAN, EAGLE, NAMPA, KUNA, STAR, AND BOISE COUNTY WEBSITE IN THE AREA. It is always up to date, easy to use and has Google street views and maps right on the listing as well as details that you will find nowhere else.
People are sill asking should I wait to buy a home in Boise? Maybe. But if you are considering it you should start looking at both interest rates and homes that are for sale in Boise and in the areas that you are considering.
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