Buy your home in Florida NOW
January 21, 2008
I wrote a post back in early November last year, Is now the right time to buy your Florida home ? The comments then are just as apropos now as they were then. However, I have some interesting recent data to add to this that lends even more support and definitively answers the question.
After reviewing the search word index over the last 45 days or so, I see a pattern that is emerging. That of many blog readers inquiring if it is safe to buy in Florida ? It would also appear that lot?s of buyers or should I say prospective buyers, have been sitting on the fence and many have been typing in the search engines all types of long tail questions that all center on the condition of the Florida Housing Market.
A lot of activity in the media and in and around the State itself is reason enough for a lot of the speculation and confusion among would be buyers.
On the one side you have the media that continues to projecting doom and gloom on the economy. You can expect this will continue throughout the year. But hey it?s an election year, why do you think this gets tons of press every day ?
The latest scare out on Friday was from a report published this month in the Journal of the American Planning Association. This report talks about Baby Boomers and the Housing bubble, with yet another spin. The original report was published early in the week and then was carried by the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday and by Friday it was over on Inman’s Blog. This latest scare says that the housing bubble now pails in comparison to what will happen when the Baby Boomers stop buying houses.
Right now there is so much speculation out there on the national markets. However, the one thing that is verifiable right here and now, in the Greater Tampa Florida Bay Area it?s time to buy a house now.
If you continue to sit on the fence you will lose a valuable opportunity to get a great deal at a mortgage rate that you will most likely not see again for some time to come.
Yes you will continue to hear negative things in the press. The economy has issues, and if the fed lowers the borrowing rate too-much it will spook the investing community and then Mortgage Rates will go up, not down.
Will the price of housing continue to move down ? Possibly, but there is opportunity a plenty right now and it is a true buyers market in Florida. If you wait, you then have to weigh the risk of a larger mortgage vs the small incremental price reduction you might see by waiting it out.
Call your local Realtor and ask them. Heck just click on the MLS link on our site (at the top of the page – looks like the one right below this paragraph) and you can search the entire State of Florida, take a look at the wonderful opportunities that await you in our great state.
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Central Florida First Time Home Buyers Workshop
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Is now the right time to buy your Florida home ?
Central Florida First Time Home Buyers Workshops
January 10, 2008
First Time Home buyer Workshops?Updated Calendar for 2008
I have noticed quite a few in-bound links lately from those looking for more information about First Time Home Buyers programs and classes in Florida. Our post last year had a very good response and I had been planning on making an update but was waiting for the CCCS to update their list and it looks like they just recently did.
Your local community has tailor made programs to help ensure you have all the pertinent information that you will need as you make one of the biggest decisions of your life, that of becoming a home owner.
They will take you step-by-step, from contract to closing, through the home buying process. You will learn what it takes to qualify for a mortgage, how to save for a down payment and even provide information regarding down payment assistance.
Should you have additional questions or when you are ready to start your search after completing the classes. please be sure to email either Theresa or Marie and they can give you some one on one coaching and personal advice that will take you on the next step of your journey to home ownership.
Here is the link to the work shops offered by the Consumer Credit Counseling Service (CCCS) of Central Florida
Right now I don?t see a schedule update on their site for Hillsboro County, but they do have dates for Pasco and Pinellas Counties?just click on the associated links
- Pasco County Schedule for 2008
- Pinellas County Schedule for 2008
Be sure to check back for tomorrows post covering ? why now is the best time to buy your first home in Florida !
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Is now the right time to buy your Florida home ?
November 9, 2007
There was an interesting post today on the Inman Blog titled, “Who’s spinning whom?” that was digesting a recently written article by Dian Hymer, “Is buying a home today a good investment?” Hymer is a veteran agent in the San Francisco East Bay and has been writing a syndicated column for Inman News for many years. This article was also reproduced in several other News outlets around the country and received quite the buzz.
In the article Hymer deliberates this question she gets from today’s buyers and advises:
“Buying a home is still a good investment if you can afford it, if you are ready to put down roots in a community, and if you want to invest in your personal happiness. Profit potential shouldn’t be your only reason for buying a home, even though in most cases your home will appreciate in value if you maintain it and if you own it long enough.
“The housing market, like any economic market, is cyclical. There are periods of robust activity followed by periods of sluggishness. Prices can go down as well as up. Now that the market has softened in most areas, it’s time to look at owning your home as a way to gain control over your personal domain — not as a source of quick cash.”
This article received a lot of comments more pros than cons. There are some interesting comments, as one reader an associate political professor at the University of California in San Diego muses -
“By any reasonable measure (expected trends in prices, the ratio of rents to mortgage payments, the ratio of incomes to mortgage payments), now is a phenomenally and historically BAD time to buy. Smart buyers will wait until smart sellers lower prices to conform to reasonable income multiples.
He continues: “This is just wrong. All of the reasons to buy are made better by waiting a year or two (or more) for prices to fall. By definition, an “investment” is something that will appreciate in price or pay a dividend. Neither is expected to be true in the next few years for housing.”
You can argue this both ways all day long but the end result is, when you are ready to buy a home, buy it.
It’ s kind of like the proverbial question – “When is the best time to buy a new computer?” The answer is, “when you need it”. Due to advances in technology, what you buy today is outdated tomorrow.
This same rationale should be applied to a major decision like buying a home as well. Yes, you need to be capable of handing the financial obligations without overreaching your self to pay your mortgage and perform regular maintenance and upkeep.
Well what about my investment some inquire ?
While we all want to ensure that an investment like a home purchase is going to net us some equity in the future right ?
True, however you should not go into it with this solely as the purpose to purchase your home.
When we bought our first home I can tell you that the investment thought was secondary to our desire to have our own place to raise our family. We stayed in that first house for just a little over 10 years.
A lot of changes happened in the marketplace and when we sold, we did receive some equity but nowhere near the insane amounts that overvalued property owners were getting here in Florida. But then again a vast majority of the homes that were purchased over the last few years in Florida and elsewhere were bough for investment as the first priority.
We bought our second home this time last year in New Port Richey. A great new development and we paid pretty close to the market rate at the time. The same model is now selling for less than what we paid for.
Are we upset about it ? Yes and No. The difference now is that we have all been engaged by the media hysteria and thinking that we are loosing out because the next person got the better deal. Sellers here in the Tampa Florida Market are still holding on with a death grip on their homes price evaluations because they think they are loosing something and buyers are holding back because they of course want the rock bottom best deal they can get.
Right now the Real Estate Market in Florida is in a Stalemate. Some one has to move to keep the process momentum going forward, despite the mortgage and lending woes.
Heres a humble suggestion:
Buy your home now. Live in it and don’t worry about the Real Estate Market. It is cyclical, it will come around when you are ready to sell. After your kids have gone off to college and your now ready to move into a smaller home or you want to buy that Vacation Home at the Beach.
If your retired now and want that Home on the Beach. You may not live to enjoy it tomorrow if you are still waiting on the market recovery next month or next year.
So back to the question of topic again.
When is the best time to buy a home ?
The answer is: * When you need it. *
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