Thursday, 7 February 2008

Is It Buying A Home Right Given The Present Financial Conditions?

By Igor Buces

The present economic conditions have a strong influence on the ability for a regular person to buy a house. There are three main factors influencing that process right now. These three factors are: lower home prices, large supply and lower interest rates.

Although by looking at the news, it seems like it is a bad time to buy a house, the reality may be very different. As with any other area in life, many successful people get to be at that point in their lives by going against the crowd.

One of the positive factors right now is the lower home prices. House prices have been decreasing for over a year. This means that you can purchase a house for about the same amount of money you could buy it over a year ago.

In addition, there is a very large supply of houses for sale at the present time. By having so many houses for sale, you can choose the house you really want in the neighborhood that you've always dreamed of.

What's more, having several houses available in each neighborhood makes seller be more willing to negotiate the price and the terms of the sale. This way, you can reduce the price of the home further or you can have the seller help you with the closing costs.

In addition, you can also enjoy the lowering interest rates. Interest rates have gone down a few times during the last year to some of the lowest rates in the last decade. This means that you will save additional money on your monthly payments.

A lower interest rate may mean a few hundred dollars in savings every month. In turn, these savings translate into tens of thousands of dollars over the life of the loan; Money you can use to pay additional debt, make improvements or simply use it for investment reasons.

There are a lot of people who think that buying a home right now is a bad decision because of the chance that home prices will go further down. Actually, it's hard to tell how much lower prices will go down or how long it will be before they come back up again.

However, if history can be used to understand economic cycles, it shows that real estate always ends up going up again. As a matter of fact, housing has been one of the most secure investments.

Giving all these factors, buying a home now may be the right choice to take advantage of the current market conditions. Of course, it depends on how long your individual financial circumstances and on how long you plan to be in your new home.

If you intend on staying in your new home for a couple of years, then buying a home right now may not be the right choice. However, if you are planning on staying in your new home for many years to come, then you should seriously consider the chance to buy a home now to take advantage of the positive conditions in the market.

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