Sharpen your first time buyer skills

The key to continued improvement in the housing market will come from new household formation.

The people underwater on their mortgage aren’t able, in many cases, to move. First time homebuyers have no such constraints. Tired of living out of boxes and ready for a place to call their own, the 20 somethings who are still living with their parents will move out as soon as it’s economically feasible.

In a ‘normal year’ in our country, 1.2 Million new households form but this past year there were less than 700,000. It keeps hitting the headlines of the presidential race that jobs growth is the key to getting our economy going. I got a call from a young woman a couple of weeks ago who was one month into her first job out of college. It took her 4 months to find it. Her first priority was to find her own place. She had checked into renting a townhouse within commuting distance of her job and the rents were nearly double what it would cost her to purchase a similar unit. She’s under contract to buy and can’t wait to paint and decorate it to her tastes.  Imagine what will happen to the housing market when an additional 500,000 households form each year in the years to come. Sharpen your first time buyer skills and figure out how to read a blueprint. It’s been a long time coming but I think those of us who stuck it out are about to be on top of the world again!