It's Time to Stop Waiting and Start Buying - Part 1

There are so many articles written on the death of real estate. This just isn't true. The market is in bad shape, especially in hard hit areas like Florida, Arizona and California. But it is not dead. In South Florida home prices are down 20-30% across the board. In some cases prices have been slashed from up to 50%. This isn't just a buyers market, it is so much more and people are not seeing it. Pay attention folks, REAL ESTATE IS ON SALE!!! The deals out there are incredible. I have seen homes that were 400k - 500k that are now in the high 200s to low 300s. These are good quality homes that have plenty of upgrades and don't need any work. Builders have finally got smart and slashed their own pricing just to move stale inventory.

Buyers are fearful that they will buy a home and prices will drop even further. This could happen but is it really that important? Are you going to be flipping the home in a few months? How much lower can prices go? The market has come full swing and we are back to 2003 - 2004 price levels. That is where the market originally took off from. You need to keep the home for several years in order to realize any profit. But keep in mind home equity is just a bonus of home ownership. You buy a home for a place to live, to raise your family, to have pride of ownership, to showcase your taste and style, to own part of the American dream. Over time you gain equity by paying down the mortgage and realizing price appreciation. You should not buy a home to live on the equity. By refinancing and taking money out of their home homeowners raised their mortgages. Then the market fell and now higher mortgages plus falling prices have created the perfect storm for a surge in buying.