Deciding to buy a home is not a financial decision

Much of the media and public attention to housing is focused on economics and the economic health of the  industry.  The by-product of the spewing of sometimes questionable data is that influences some folks' home buying decisions.  They are making a decision to correct a lifestyle deficiency based on whether some home builder had a good year, or if banks have sold more foreclosed property last month.  They hear that home values are going up or down, mostly down.  They are concerned that buying a home today may not be a good investment.

Unless you are a professional landlord or house flipper, you are not making a financial investment decision when you decide to buy a home.  If you need heart surgery and decide to go ahead with it, you are making a medical decision, not a financial investment decision.  Depending on type of insurance or lack of insurance, the price can be very high, but you go through with it to improve your life.  You can shop a few medical facilities for quality and price, but it would make no sense to try to guess the market and wait for prices to come down.

Likewise, a decision to undergo a lifestyle correction/improvement is not a financial decision.  You need to consider just what is affordable, but the decision is for or against improving your life.  What makes little sense is to wait until something happens down the road.  Maybe the price will drop, or maybe interest rates will change.  Maybe Apple Valley will be hit by a giant meteor.  As in a decision to have heart surgery, we never know just how far we will go before the road ends.  The time for a lifestyle correction is now.