Get ready...now is the time.

Yes, the Housing Market Has Rarely Looked Better
by James B. Stewart
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
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Passing through the Fort Myers, Fla., airport a few weeks ago, I noticed people eagerly signing up for a free bus tour of foreclosed real estate — with all properties offering water views. During the ride to my hotel, the young driver volunteered that he’d just bought his first house, paying $65,000 for a foreclosed property in nearby Cape Coral that had last sold for over $250,000. He said he’d never expected to be able to buy anything on a driver’s salary, let alone something that nice.

Last week, Standard & Poor’s reported that its S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price index of real estate values increased this past quarter over the first quarter of 2009, the first quarter-on-quarter increase in three years. Its index of 20 major cities also rose for the three months ended June 30 over the three months ended May 31, with only hard-hit Detroit and Las Vegas experiencing declines. The week before that, the National Association of Realtors reported that sales volume of existing homes was up 7.2% in July from June.


In short, the data suggest that real-estate prices hit a bottom some time during the second quarter, and have now begun to rise. There’s no way to be certain that this marks the end of the long, painful correction that followed the real-estate bubble, but clearly prices are no longer in free fall. That means if you’ve been sitting on the fence, it’s time to act.

Ordinarily I’d never try to time the real-estate market, but I can understand why buyers have been cautious. Few want to buy in down markets, just as stock buyers avoid bear markets. And for most people, of course, buying a house is a much bigger decision than buying a stock. But with real estate prices nationally now down about 30% from their 2006 peak, and showing signs of turning up, the prices aren’t likely to go much lower. Every real-estate market is local, and so there may be a few exceptions. Overall, though, I can’t imagine a better time to buy than right now.

In addition to bargain prices, buyers should find plenty of homes to choose from. The inventory of unsold homes was 4.09 million units in July, up 7.3% from June, according to the National Association of Realtors. And mortgage rates this week were at a two-month low of close to 5%, according to Zillow. Even the stricter appraisal process is working to the advantage of buyers. Appraisals are coming in far lower than most sellers have been expecting, forcing them to face the new reality of sharply lower prices. And with stricter standards, lenders aren’t going to let buyers borrow more than they can afford, which protects buyers and helps to keep prices down.

Unless you’re really prepared to accept the demands (and headaches) of being a landlord, I don’t recommend direct ownership of real estate as an investment. The days of buyers lining up to buy and flip Miami Beach and Las Vegas condos are mercifully gone. There are much easier ways to make money in real estate, such as real-estate investment trusts or buying shares in home builders and other housing-related businesses (such as Home Depot (HD)). Historically, the mean rate of return on real estate has been around 3%, according to research from Yale economist Robert Shiller, who co-developed the Case-Shiller index. Shares in REITs and other stocks have often done much better.

But there’s a good reason home ownership has been such a central part of the American dream. It delivers security, pride of ownership, a sense of community and decent investment returns as a bonus. I felt glad for my driver in Florida. He represents the other side of the foreclosure crisis. For every hardship story, and no doubt there are many, others are realizing their dreams of home ownership and getting what may well turn out to be the deals of their lives.
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Reposted

procrastination....sometimes bad, sometimes good.

There are many levels of procrastination that either help or hinder a transaction...this is what we do..we help facilitate the transaction involved with a transfer of ownership of a real estate/property. Whew, that's a big sentence, but essentially if you wait to decide, you must know what the circumstances are that can help you...

I believe the time it takes to make a decision is based on not having enough information to know how to make a decision to accept the terms of the contract and recieve the aquisition. So that's a good reason to wait or procrastinate...

Now there is the opposite reason to stall a decision when you are not ready. And not being ready has a multitude of reason to not make a decision to sign and accept what you want. I don't need to explain excuses but it is related to the reason why it is good to wait but like a bullet in a chamber once fired you can't put it back.

My suggestion and the reason I blog this issue is because to empower your self with a confident decision is a wonderful life changing experience...even on the most minute, infantile level.

To satisfy yourself and not delay your joy...take the time to do your research, once you get all the facts,,,maybe make a checklist..verify you completed the list and then decide confidently.

At that point, procrastination is not an issue to quote "To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing." ~Eva Young