It's NOT a matter of WHEN to Buy...
It's a matter of IF you're Plugged In to the Market
David W. Bolick www.NetworkRealEstateAR.com
These days people are overly concerned about "is now the time to buy or sell" and are inundated with doomsday news about the real estate market being "down". The key is not "when" you buy...it's whether or not you're "IN the flow of inflation or not" and the market is never actually "down" to a point where you don't buy because you have to consider Inflation.
The best laymen's definition of inflation is "a general and progressive increase in prices; in inflation everything gets more valuable except money". Inflation in this sense has been with us since the beginning of time and always will be.
To put it in proper perspective, the first home I bought was on Florida Street when I was 19 in 1969. I paid $7,500 for a 2 bedroom 1 bath with 782 square feet with a house payment of $65.00 per month. That was $9.59 per square foot if you can believe that. I kept that house for about 5 years and sold it for $14,500 and purchase a home on Southbrook for $42,000 in 1974. It was a 4 bedroom 2 bath with large den and 2,036 square feet. I paid a whopping $20.63 per square foot back then. Today the Florida house is valued by the county at $72,000 or $92.07 per square foot with Southbrook at $72.20 per foot.
Regardless, if I still lived in the Florida house, it would have been paid for 10 years ago and that would be equivalent to having $72,000 sitting in the bank with a mortgage payment of ZERO! Or if I had stayed in the Southbrook house, it would have been paid for 5 years ago and I'd have $147,000 free and clear, again with a zero house payment. Selling one house and stepping up to another and reinvesting your gain into the new house each time will create a large amount of wealth over time.
On the other hand, IF you were living in an apartment in 1969, your rent may well have been about $60 per month for a 2 bedroom, but today that same apartment would be renting for $700 per month. So how long should you have waited for the housing market to "go down" before buying?
Because of inflation, real estate will always increase in value, So the time to BUY is always NOW. Obviously the "interest rate" has a lot to do with how much of your inflation gain goes into your pocket, but anytime interest rates are at or below a previous 10 year average, you can't go wrong.
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