was asked by a reader why I felt so strongly about now being the right time to buy a home in Tallahassee. My response is a bit long-winded, but simple to understand.
Unless you are one of the fortunate few who can buy a home in Tallahassee without borrowing money, the cost of the money that you borrow is one of the greatest costs that you pay. In order to see this better, I created a simple scenario. Let’s assume that you want to buy a home in Tallahassee for $250,000. Let’s say you sell your previous home and use the proceeds of $50,000 as your down payment, thus financing $200,000 in the new home. Your monthly payment (principal and interest), would be as seen in the table below (payment changes for different interest rate):
In this example, we can buy a $250,000 home with a monthly payment of $1,136.
So why is now such an important time to buy? Because rates are going to go back up. In the early 1980s, we saw rates at 20%! So what does this mean to a family wanting to buy a home in Tallahassee? Let’s take a look at the purchasing power of that $1,136 per month at different rates. Today, it buys a house of $250,000. When rates go up to 9%, that same payment will only buy a $176,400 house!
So, even if you think home values might come down (even as much as 20%), your monthly cost of ownership is cheaper now than it would be. I do not believe that properties in this price range will come down 20%, but even if it were true, and you plan on living in the home for more than five years, you will save money by buying now.
If you like this Article then please subscribe to my full RSS feed. You will be able to stay informed about the happenings in the Tallahassee Real Estate Market. You can also subscribe by Email.
Joe Manausa is the Broker and Co-Owner of Century 21 First Realty. He can be reached by clicking on the comments button below, via e-mail through his company website at www.manausa.com, or by calling (850) 386-2001.
Comments(53)