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Are you speculating on home prices?

First of all, this is not a "Paint pretty roses on my canvas" type of post to encourage on-the-fence homebuyers to act. It is my personal view first as a person and a homeowner, not so much coming from a Realtor(R) perspective.

On the fence home buyers I have worked with a few on-the-fence buyers for a while. A few that just wants to see how much lower it would go. A few that just wants to buy at the absolute bottom. There is nothing wrong with that. In fact, I wished I could do that myself too.

However, you have heard me say this far too often. Real estate is local. Local to communities, local to cities. It is also local to price points too. The "first time" home buyer, smaller homes perhaps less than $150-$160K here in the Frisco TX real estate market did not get "hurt" as much. Some clients that I work with actually gained equity even though they purchased 4 years ago. Looking back at historical data, we could almost say that 2004-2006 was perhaps the peak of the market prices here in Frisco.

All of these foreclosure talks are somewhat relative. Many people are foreclosed on today because they perhaps have put very little down, gained no equity in 4 years and now are suffering financial difficulty on top of a bad market condition.

Home prices may not go up very much but they don't go down very much either, at least not for our Frisco TX real estate market. We are not California or East Coast where we had the roller coaster rides of the real estate market. Our Frisco TX homes were never bought for $200K yesterday, then worth $300K 6 months later, then $140K with no takers another 6 months down the road.

I cannot promise you that if you bought your house today, that it may not go down more. Though $5-$10K seems alot, again we are talking about time value of money and especially with the favorable interest rates less than 5% for a 30-year and 4.25% for a 15-year note today. It is not less than $50 more per month that we are discussing about? How about the pride of homeownership? Something you can call your own? A wall color you can paint just because you can?

If we ever keep holding out for market conditions to turn, we are speculating. Yes, gamblers of the real estate market. Taking a chance on the real estate roulette wheel. Personally, a home for your family should never be viewed that way. And I'm saying all this not as a realtor(R) who's trying to paint a positive picture. I am first a person and a homeowner who wants my home to be a blessing to my family. Though a house is an investment, it is first a refuge for my family. A roof over our head. Sure, I wouldn't ever want to see the values fall. But who can tell me that this is how low it would go, or how high we can see?

Back to how I always answer if Now is the time to purchase? Buy it when you are financially and emotionally ready. I'm not saying Let's not care about the market conditions but sometimes in life, we can't win it all. We got to give a little to take a little.

Note: All contents are original. Consider subscribing to my blog for more communities in the greater Frisco TX real estate market. It is my intentions to bring you neighborhood and communities highlights worth your time subscribing to.

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I specialize serving the real estate communities in the northern suburb cities of the Dallas metroplex. If you are thinking about purchasing or selling your home in neighborhoods of Frisco, Plano, Dallas, McKinney, Allen, Little Elm, Prosper, Celina, Richardson, Dallas M-Streets, Dallas White Rock Lake area and other surrounding areas and more importantly, want to work with a local area expert, contact me at your earliest convenience.

It is a competitive market, hence it is important that you choose to work with the realtor who knows these communities like none other. I employ a systematic market approach in selling your home - an intentionally unique proposal that most real estate agents do not use. If you care to be on your way to a successful closing, contact me immediately to see how different my proposition will be.

Contact:
Loreena Yeo
Realtor®/ Broker of 3:16 team REALTY
(214) 783-2210
loreena@loreenayeo.com

Do Not Copy. Serious actions will be taken. Re-blog is allowed for Active Rain members on the Active Rain platform when the content is taken in its entirety and credit be given to Loreena Yeo and 3:16 team REALTY.

Posted by Loreena Yeo - Broker|Realtor(R) of Frisco-TX-Homes (214) 783-2210 on 01/15/2009 11:20 PM

Comments (7)

Speculating on Home Prices in Frisco TX in the Home Buying Channel

frisco tx homes for sale, home buying tips

Originally posted at: faithfully frisco tx homes for sale: Are you speculating on home prices?

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7 Comments on Are you speculating on home prices?

JAN

How true, how true!

JAN

AMEN!

If buyers are ready then it can be a great time to buy. Over the last few years we had many "not ready to buy" buyers and that is a huge part of the foreclsoure mess.

I consistantly remind people that many of the advantages of home ownership are not financial. You have you own place to callhome, raise your family, and if you want to paint a bedroom purple or pink you don't have to ask the landlord!

The financial benefits of ome ownership come over the long term by building equity through regualr payments and gradual appreciation.

Lorenna I am right there with you. I wish I could time the exact bottom too. I want to attempt my first flip, yes in this market there is still money to be made, if i could time the exact bottom I would be buying out the stock who wouldnt.

Loreena - "buy when you are financially and emotionally ready" . Well said... some folks will never be ready and could just be paralyzed by fear. What we try to convey too is that there certainly is substantial value to quality of life improvement that is hard to measure quantitatively. I think the people who wait too long will regret that decision. For when people know that the "bottom is in" that means the bottom already happened ! Great post !

Good post Loreena. It seems like there are some speculators out there, trying to push prices lower. Unfortunately for various reasons many people who normally might be thinking about a change right now aren't. There seems to be a deep seated mindset that the market is bad. We must shift our focus to education of current realities, make buyers aware of the prime opportunity that exists with the low rates and possible tax credit, and sellers that there is an even 'apples to apples' situation. If they sell a little lower than they'd like, whatever they buy will also be a little lower than what those sellers would like. Its all relative.

Brian.

Such a valid point Loreena. Real estate is even local to neighborhoods.

JAN

Here is what I say to my clients who may ask me that question. It comes from Brian Buffini, who monitors statistics all the time. He loves numbers! Real estate has been, on the average, for the last fifty years, yielding a steady gain to homeowners. There are ups and downs, but, on the average, it is still the best investment that you can make. In my area, Connecticut, the prices, on average, are still higher than they were eight years ago. So true, every market is different.

It's a Good Life!

Fran

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