Three Questions to Ask Before You BUY a Home

 

If you are thinking about purchasing a home right now, you are surely getting a lot of advice. Though your friends and family have your best interests at heart, they may not be fully aware of your needs and what is currently happening in real estate. Let’s look at whether or not now is actually a good time for you to buy a home. There are three questions you should ask before purchasing in today’s market:

1. Why am I buying a home in the first place?

This truly is the most important question to answer. Forget the finances for a minute. Why did you even begin to consider purchasing a home? For most, the reason has nothing to do with finances. A study by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University reveals that the four major reasons people buy a home have nothing to do with money:

• A good place to raise children and for them to get a good education


• A place where you and your family feel safe


• More space for you and your family


• Control of the space

What non-financial benefits will you and your family derive from owning a home? The answer to that question should be the biggest reason you decide to purchase or not.

2. Where are home values headed?

When looking at future housing values, Home Price Expectation Survey provides a fair assessment. Every quarter, Pulsenomics surveys a nationwide panel of over one hundred economists, real estate experts and investment & market strategists about where prices are headed over the next five years. They then average the projections of all 100+ experts into a single number. Here is what the experts projected in the latest survey:

• Home values will appreciate by 4% in 2015.


• The cumulative appreciation will be 19.5% by 2018.


• Even the experts making up the most bearish quartile of the survey still are projecting a cumulative appreciation of over 11.2% by 2018.

3. Where are mortgage interest rates headed?

A buyer must be concerned about more than just prices. The ‘long term cost’ of a home can be dramatically impacted by an increase in mortgage rates. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), the National Association of Realtors, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have all projected that mortgage interest rates will increase by approximately one full percentage over the next twelve months.

Bottom Line

Only you and your family can know for certain the right time to purchase a home. Answering these questions will help you make that decision.

 

Taking the Spooky Out of the Mortgage Process

Home Sales Hit Highest Level of the Year

 

 

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) released their Existing Home Sales Report earlier this week. The report revealed that “sales bounced back in September to their highest annual pace of the year”. As the chart below shows, after a very slow start at the beginning of the year, residential home sales have been increasing nicely.

 

Billionaire Says Real Estate is Best Investment Possible

Billionaire money manager John Paulson wasinterviewed at the Delivering Alpha Conference presented by CNBC and Institutional Investor. During his session he boldly stated: "I still think, from an individual perspective, the best deal investment you can make is to buy a primary residence that you're the owner-occupier of.” Who is John Paulson? Paulson is the person who, back in 2005 & 2006, made a fortune betting that the subprime mortgage mess would cause the real estate market to collapse. He understands how the housing market works and knows when to buy and when to sell. What do others think of Paulson? According to Forbes, John Paulson is: “A multibillionaire hedge fund operator and the investment genius.” According to the Wall Street Journal, Paulson is: “A hedge fund tycoon who made his name, and a fortune, betting against subprime mortgages when no one else even knew what they were.” The best investment you can make is to buy a primary residence that you're the owner-occupier of... Click To Tweet - Powered By CoSchedule Why does he believe homeownership is such a great investment? Paulson breaks down the math of homeownership as an investment: "Today financing costs are extraordinarily low. You can get a 30-year mortgage somewhere around 4.5 percent. And if you put down, let's say, 10 percent and the house is up 5 percent, which is the latest data, then you would be up 50 percent on your investment." How many are seeing a 50% return on a cash investment right now? Paulson goes on to compare the long term financial benefits of owning verses renting: “And you’ve locked in the cost over the next 30 years. And today the cost of owning is somewhat less than the cost of renting. And if you rent, the rent goes up every year. But if you buy a 30-year mortgage, the cost is fixed.” Bottom Line Whenever a billionaire gives investment advice, people usually clamor to hear it. This billionaire gave simple advice – if you don’t yet live in your own home, go buy one

 

Ada County Real Estate September Snapshot

 

New Construction = New Competition

For the last several years, home sellers had to compete with huge inventories of distressed properties (foreclosures and short sales). The great news is that the supply of these properties is falling like a rock in the vast majority of housing markets (only 8% of homes sold in August). Many homeowners are now thinking of selling as the impact of this substantially discounted competition has disappeared. However, every seller of an existing residential property must realize that there is a new form of competition hitting the market: newly constructed homes. According to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB),new-home sales topped 500,000, in August, for the first time since 2008.

“This jump in sales activity is in line with our latest surveys, which indicate builders are seeing increased traffic and more serious buyers in the market for single-family homes,” said Kevin Kelly, chairman of the NAHB.

Broken down regionally, new home sales rose:

• 50% in the West


• 29.2% in the Northeast


• 7.8% in the South


• and were unchanged in the Midwest

Bottom Line

If you are thinking of selling, perhaps you should do it now to avoid additional competition coming to the market.

 

A Home’s Cost vs. Price Explained

 

We have often talked about the difference between COST and PRICE. As a seller, you will be most concerned about ‘short term price’ – where home values are headed over the next six months. As either a first time or repeat buyer, you must not be concerned about price but instead about the ‘long term cost’ of the home.

Let us explain.

Recently, we reported that a nationwide panel of over one hundred economists, real estate experts and investment & market strategists projected that home values would appreciate by approximately 4% from now to the end of 2015. Additionally, Freddie Mac’s most recent Economic Commentary & Projections Table predicts that the 30 year fixed mortgage rate will be 5.0% by the end of next year.

What Does This Mean to a Buyer?

Here is a simple demonstration of what impact these projected changes would have on the mortgage payment of a home selling for approximately $250,000 today: