Now is the Time to Buy a Home (According to the Wall Street Journal)

The Wall Street Journal Online posted an article this morning about how NOW is the time to buy a home, and they make some very good points. Prices appear to have bottomed out, both nationally and in Chicago, according the the Case/Schiller Price Index. If you look closely at the Chicago MLS numbers, this region reached its price bottom in February and has steadily increased each month since then. Conversely, sales activity has also picked up in the same time frame and has now reached the same levels that we were at for the same month last year. So it appears that buyers are getting the message and realizing that now might be the best opportunity in their lifetime to buy a home. Of course, many of these buyers are rushing to take advantage of the $8,000 tax credit before it expires on November 30.

 

As prices continue to inch upward, more and more buyers will finally jump off the fence and back into the real estate market. It will take a little longer for buyers to return to the new home market since new units are typically priced a little higher than resale units, but they will return none the less.

 

All of the Chicago facts and figures are highlighted in our Chicago Perspectives Newsletter which is available on the left side of this blog. Below is an excerpt of the Wall Street Journal Online article. To read the entire story, click here

 

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 had just bought his first house, paying $65,000 for a foreclosed property in nearby Cape Coral that last sold for over $250,000. He said he had 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.

Posted by RW Real Estate Advisors at 10:55 AM