Buyers Can Afford to Buy Again!

It has been awhile in the making ... but people can actually afford to buy a house in the Maryland suburbs of DC again.

That's the good part about this economy.  Of course there are a lot of short sales and forclosures on the market now ... a very rough estimate after looking through the MRIS is that somewhere near 50% of the listings are either short sales and foreclosures. No one likes to walk through a short sale or foreclosure and know that someone has lost their home because of bad loans, loss of a job ... but the bubble had to break somehow and given a year or so more the housing market will recover ... for the better.

Three years ago, little houses that sold for $500 pushed a lot of people to the limit in terms of what they could afford simply to get in a house (that in turm might have cost them a lot more than the sales price because of bad plumbing, roofing, foundation problems "overlooked" because no seller was accepting home inspection contingencies).  Now those same houses are selling for a much mroe reasonable $350 or so ...

And it's not just short sales and foreclosures for sale.  Some sellers need to sell even though the market value of their homes have significantly dropped. These are great buyers for qualified buyers (who are out there!). The home prices are back to to "reasonable" and with a living, breathing seller there can even be negotiation on price, repairs and closing help.

So for people how are moving into the area, there are actually homes they can afford. It is good to know that you can actually help people find houses that not only meet their needs but are also reasonably priced.