Why NOW is really the BEST time to buy a home!

Just over 20,000 homes were sold in Hampton Roads in 2014, that is a little over a 3% decline in the number of sales from the previous year. This soft sales rate could mean that lenders will be motivated to keep mortgage interest rates in the mid 3% range prior to the seasonal spring sales increases. Savvy buyers know that a low interest rate along with fewer competing homes could mean extra value to them. Serious sellers marketing during the winter months may also be more willing to negotiate prior to spring as well.
 
Locally, the key factor for a buyer is to interview experienced full time Realtors and hire one that understands their motivation and needs. It's true that buyers have online tools to see all the homes for sale but with all the data available it take experience to truly realize value when you see it. In  Hampton Roads each school district and neighborhoods function like "micro markets." You need experience on your side to show you how to navigate the buyer waters.  Supply and demand can have a drastic value difference for homes even within a mile apart and computer models like Zillow and Trulia cannot factor these changes as efficiently as a full time, local, professional.
 
We're here to help - and we offer full-service support for our buyers and sellers. Check out our Buyer's Guide and Tools and make sure to check out our new search on our all-new website.
 
Still not convinced - here is a great list of reasons we found from KeepCurrentMatters.com  on why NOW is the time to buy.
 

1. Prices Will Continue to Rise

The Home Price Expectation Survey polls a distinguished panel of over 100 economists, investment strategists, and housing market analysts. Their most recent report projects appreciation in home values over the next five years to be between 15.1% (most pessimistic) and 32.8% (most optimistic).

The bottom in home prices has come and gone. Home values will continue to appreciate for years. Waiting no longer makes sense. 

2. Mortgage Interest Rates Are Projected to Increase

Although Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey shows that interest rates for a 30-year mortgage have softened recently, most experts predict that they will begin to rise over the next 12 months. The Mortgage Bankers Association, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac & the National Association of Realtors are in unison projecting that rates will be up almost a full percentage point by the end of 2015.

An increase in rates will impact YOUR monthly mortgage payment. Your housing expense will be more a year from now if a mortgage is necessary to purchase your next home.

3. Either Way You are Paying a Mortgage

As a paper from the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University explains:

“Households must consume housing whether they own or rent. Not even accounting for more favorable tax treatment of owning, homeowners pay debt service to pay down their own principal while households that rent pay down the principal of a landlord plus a rate of return. That’s yet another reason owning often does—as Americans intuit—end up making more financial sense than renting.”

4. It’s Time to Move On with Your Life

The ‘cost’ of a home is determined by two major components: the price of the home and the current mortgage rate. It appears that both are on the rise.

But, what if they weren’t? Would you wait?

Look at the actual reason you are buying and decide whether it is worth waiting. Whether you want to have a great place for your children to grow up, you want your family to be safer or you just want to have control over renovations, maybe it is time to buy.

If the right thing for you and your family is to purchase a home this year, buying sooner rather than later could lead to substantial savings.

Post a Comment