With low interest rates, a buyer's market, deflated home prices, and the $8000 tax credit, why are there buyers still on the fence? If you are one of these buyers reading this, please contact a Realtor--preferably me if you live in the York area :-) ! But anyways, are we in historic times for first time home-buying or what? I would like to just take this space to stir up some conversation about the nature of Gen-Y buyers or should-be-buyers in this market.
So we all probably know someone out there, maybe friends or family, who should be making that first home purchase, but they aren't. Many of my Gen-Y peers make up this population of people not buying. So why aren't they buying? Are they ill informed? Do they dislike the idea of maintaining a home? Or maybe it runs deeper like-- maybe home ownership isn't something that generation Y values.
If it is a matter of people being ill-informed, are we Realtors failing in marketing this great opportunity? A brief story: I met with a friend of mine over questions he had about buying. He solicited the meeting. Over the meeting, he agreed with me that it is a great time to buy and it may not get any better than this-- and HE SHOULD BE BUYING! I told him what his next steps were, and sent him some reminders, but the home buying expedition never took off for him, and he has since told me that he isn't going to be buying for now.
What about maintenance, or the underlying responsibility of owning a home? In my own home buying experience, I was anxious to find a fixer-upper so that I could learn a thing or two about home projects! I wanted to put my special mark on a home! But I feel like I am running into a lot of young should-be buyers who value the few advantages of renting. They are at ease if it is someone else's responsibility, and they don't care that their rent gets thrown away instead of building up equity. Is it as simple as a difference in values?
Allow me to potentially stereotype my own generation. Is there something different about this culture? Ownership is American! Isn't it? But this curiously doesn't seem to be a shared sentiment with some my peers, which I alluded to in the above paragraph. Perhaps Generation Y is a more nomadic people and we do not like to be tied down. I don't know what it is so could you please help me out?
Nathan Krotzer
RE/MAX Patriots
2575 Eastern Blvd. York, PA
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