My view is that if you feel like it is time for a new home, then you at least owe it to yourself (and your family) to look into the possibilities. The most important factors that go into whether you should buy a new home or not are the ones that are internal to your situation, not any external ones. Factors like:
- Your house is too small for your growing family
- Your house is too big after your children moved away
- Your job moved so now your commute is much longer
- Your lifelong friends have all moved away so the neighborhood is just not the same
- An injury means someone in your household can no longer use stairs
- Your dream home is finally on the market
There are many more. And you shouldn’t wait for all the external factors to align before you at least take the opportunity to see what the possibilities are. In fact, they may never align. And if you do try and time it just perfect, you may miss out on better opportunities you never knew were there.
That being said, external factors are still favorable to today’s home buyers. Mortgage rates are still low, and should be into the near future. Even if they become too high for your situation, remember that there are other sources for money besides mortgages like equity in your current home, savings or even family. Investigate your entire financial picture as you plan for buying a new home.
Prices on available homes are still relatively low. Some people have it in their minds that home prices have been rising steadily through the years, so a home that sold for $150,000 in 1999 must now be going for $1,000,000. That’s not the case. Prices go up and down for many reasons. There’s no harm in looking at what’s on the market, and seeing what homes with what you want and need are going for. Besides, just because a home is listed for a certain price doesn’t mean you can’t offer something a little less if that’s what you feel comfortable paying.
There still is a large quantity of homes on the market. Financial situations and uncertainty during the recession caused many would-be home sellers to stand pat. In the last year or so more and more of the homes that may have been put on the market in 2008 or 2009 have finally been put up for sale. These, along with homes that are going on the market due to current situations, means that there are more homes on the market today than we would find in a typical find.
As your living situation evolves, feel free to give me a call with any questions regarding looking at available real estate. Call at (518) 321-1870 and let me know how I can help.