I'm looking to buy my first home and some financial-types are telling me this is a great time to buy. But there is a reason personal spending across the board has flat-lined. People are hanging on to their money. Is this the time to make such a large investment?
The guest speakers at the home-buying seminar I attended last night said the level of housing foreclosures and the clamping down of credit were being blown out of proportion. They blamed "The Media" (one of my favorite terms- who are The Media these days anyway?) for brainwashing everyone into believing that times were uncertain and that buying a home was risky. At the heart of their speeches: money is
available (
federal first-time home buyer programs) and "great" interest rates can still be found (not 4% anymore, but 6.5%- "awesome" as I was reminded when compared to 17% in the late 70s).
I take that pep talk with a grain of salt. It doesn't take a journalist to figure out that they are trying to sell houses and make loans.
So I did a little research online, which seems to bear out that, if you can land a decent interest rate, maybe you could land a decent place. The
housing data for the handful of zip codes I checked seems to indicate fewer home
sales. And in the cases in which sales levels were where they were last
year (or close to it), the average selling price was lower. If this squeeze continues, people may get desperate and chop $20K off the price to unload...?
There's a lot more research I need to do on this. The
Fox Business Financial Planning Tools have been a help. But every financial planner I've seen on Good Day is still saying wait to make a move.
Any advice out there?
Guess I need to see a "sold" sign in my mind before I'm ready to see it on my new front lawn.
