Good Fences Make . . . . . Good Fence Sitters ?!?

Sorry Robert Frost.  You wrote,

 "Good fences make good neighbors." 

I couldn't agree more.  But, I also think the same good fences, are making fence sitting even more comfy for Buyers, right about now.

"It doesn't matter which side of the fence you get off on sometimes. What matters most is getting off. You cannot make progress without making decisions." ~~ Jim Rohn

A few recent posts got me to think:

• First, Andi Grant's: Humpty Dumpty Was Pushed . . . Getting Fence Sitters to Jump Andi writes about being supportive of consumers, and clients with their decisions.  Couldn't agree more.

• Second, Suzanne Masalla's: 17.65% Interest, OH NO!  Suzanne writes about interest rates being at all time LOWS, and supports this with graphs.  (P.S.  Suzanne is new to Active Rain.  While not her "first" post here, it's still a very well-written one, with a great use of INSERTS!!) 

• Third, Claudette Millette: In This Day and Age - What Good is Buying a Home?  Claudette does an admirable job of "counter-pointing" Time's latest yellow journalistic piece of the evils of home-ownership.  

There's a lot of discussion heating up here on Active Rain about WHY AREN'T BUYERS BUYING?  I've only included a few posts -- there's so much more on this subject.   Feel free to link yours, if you'd like.

The message threads running through these same-themed posts are:

• Prices have DROPPED
• Interest rates are LOW
• Inventory is HIGH

So why isn't the 1+1+1 equaling Buyers?!?

The point of this post is to answer the rhetoical question: WHY aren't buyers buying? 

Here's what I think:

• There's still the "deer caught in the headlights" mentality with Buyers.  With the mortgage meltdown, consumer confidence is down, unemployment and distrust of banksters, I don't blame them.
• Next, we have the dumb media telling us, and hyping the "it's better to rent" mantra (which will be the subject of another post). 
• Then we have the very high numbers of people who have had their credit RUINED as direct fall out / friendly fire of the banksters heist of the 21st Century. 
• Then we have the inability for self-employed people to obtain loans. 
• Then we have the tightening up on loans . . . on QUAlIFIED borrowers.   
• Then we have the move-up Buyers who have had to EAT a lot of APPRECIATION thanks to banksters' manipulation of the market.  Move-up Buyers have had direct fall out, and are causalities of the friendly fire as well.
• Then the fence sitters who think prices may come down even more, so they'll wait
• Toss into the mix, the investors who cash out a well-priced home, and a Buyer with intentions of "owner occupancy" is bumped out of the game.

My advice:  If you can qualify for a loan, and want to buy . . . it may be a good time for you.  If not, then "frenting" (I just made that up -- fence sitting/renting) might be the right thing to do.