Jim Cramer says, "Don't you dare buy a home now - you will lose money."

Last spring I had a several buyers, and they were all concerned about buying a house "at the top of the market." They wanted to know if they were making a bad decision, and if they'd lose money. I tried to tell them that they were buying a home, not day trading in houses. And I did say that if they were investors, buying houses to flip, that I didn't think it was a very good time to do that. Does the market go up and down? Yes. Is real estate a good investment over time? Yes. Can I guarantee that their house will gain in value over time? I don't know.

 In short, I think we need to remind buyers what it is that they're buying. A home, not an investment.

I've always disliked Cramer. I think he's loud, obnoxious, and occassionally right. He goes by the motto of "If I yell louder than the other guy then I must be right."

I think he's wrong. If you plan to be in your home 3+ years in my market I think you're going to do great if you buy now.

Hey Ricardo,  I just commented on another post about this guy.  :)  I'm trying to be nice by not saying anything at all.  Hee Hee.  Seriously. 

Hope all is well over there.

Thanks for sharing Lenn's post...it was GREAT! If only someone could find a way to bleep out his words when he says anything about real estate. It's a great time to buy (in most markets), with interest rates still low and several markets at or near their bottoms...there's only one way to go...UP!

I try not to listen to anyone like him spewing anything negative about our market, especially when he's not an expert in our field. That would be like me going on the air telling everyone not to buy stock, I haven't a clue! He needs to stick to what he does best and let us do our jobs!

Do people really listen to this garbage?  Unbelievable...

I love it!  This tells me we are probably at the bottom or close to it!!!

This is the same guy that has a lame TV show where he pounds on a button like it was the easy button from staples right? blah blah blah...that's what I think. I think he's on TV for a reason, Entertainment and nothing more. i wouldn't buy a stock he told me to buy so I wouldn't listen to him about real estate. Naturally, the general public isn't going to look at it like that. It will just scare them further. It's a shame...    

Hey Ricardo I hadn't heard from Cramer before but a good friend REALLY likes him!  Why I ask???  I do like that he says Seattle is still up but the reality is that we have a huge inventory of affordable homes on the market because buyers can't qualify or don't have the down payment.  The reason Seattle looks so good is because the market with the greatest absorption rate is the $750k-1.2Mil markets!  We have a lot of very wealthy people here able to buy the high priced real estate.  Unfortunately the sellers with affordable homes are seeing their homes sitting for a very very long time!  Great Post!

The big problem nowadays is that everyone wants to put ALL of the blame for our economic situation on the housing market. But look at the stock market, in the last year we've seen records set by the DOW, google hitting $600 and a severe peak all around in the stock market. So the last thing that they want to happen is for their stocks to start going down, but that is inevitable, right? We run into the situation that our economy is going in so many different directions as opposed to a couple years ago when everything was going in the same direction, after the internet buble hit, 9/11, and housing boomed. I think everyone is trying to take emphasis or hide the inevitable recession.

Cramer knows stocks not individual housing markets.. the big builders are in trouble but they don't have much to do with my local market.  We will all be  affected by the credit crunch as that is a national issue.. high rates affect everyone.  The IE is affected by KB homes but they don't have any projects in Manhattan Beach that I know of here.   I was reading something a few days ago that said in the 90's nationally homes only lost 3% of vlaue... Hello... not in So Cal.. the beach cities saw prices drop 30% and no one had a job or could get one.. Real estate is local.. and a market can vary by city to city..

Bouyaaaaa Cramer!!

You've got to love him and you have to hate him.  He's up in the Northeast and my market is still strong........What does he know about real estate?

The above quote is right- real estate is local! It's so frustrating to have all of these 'experts' bombarding everyone everywhere that you shouldn't buy now. Our market is doing fine, I did some research in May and there were 42 less home sales than the previous year. But, keep scaring people and they'll stop buying. 

Four words:

Jim Cramer

Bear Stearns

Very informative article. Buying and selling a house is a serious decision. It is the largest purchase one has ever made in his or her life.