Thinking about moving to the north shore. First time home buyer. (Haverhill: for sale, condos)

[Ghost Five]

I am looking at homes in Haverhill, as my girlfriend will be working there. We want to buy a home while the prices are low and are thinking about attending this auction I seen this weekend. This house has a lot of work done to it from the basement up to the roof. It is a 3 bed 2 bath and looks nice. I wanted to share the link with everyone as we are considering smaller homes because we do not need 3 bedrooms.

_Serious buyers must act now. Limited opportunity. (http://boston.craigslist.org/nwb/reo/2431696128.html - broken link)

Let me know what you think.

Cheers.

[wxjay]

I don't know your exact situation, etc., but please don't jump into buying a home because prices are low right now. The fact is - prices are going to stay low or perhaps even drop more in the coming year-3 years. Look at any newspaper - unemployment is still high (MA is slightly below the national average but still...), economic indicators are pointing to another recession-like dip, and earning power is quite low, even for people with good jobs.

Again, you don't have to share everything here with us, but please make sure you have 20% down for the place in addition to 6-8 month emergency fund (your and your girlfriend's monthly net pay multipled by 6 or 8) AND with the costs of any renovations you plan for the place (estimate the costs and then always add 10-20% to that).

As far as this house - it looks nice and all, but what is the neighborhood like? The other houses - are they well-kept or run down? Why is it so cheap (the median price for homes in Haverhill is $277,000)? Are you familiar with Haverhill? Do you plan on raising a family - even in the future? Because you shouldn't buy a house now with the intent that "Oh we will just move in 2-3 years when we start a family." Conditions could be as bad if not a little worse in 2-3 years for the housing market and that means you could be "trapped" with this house.

I am sorry - I don't mean to burst your bubble or make you feel bad about this house. I just have seen so many of my friends and family jump into housing only to now be stuck in underwater homes/condos. My parents have a condo in Atlanta that we/they purchased in 2006 while I was down there for graduate school. The condo's value is now dropping close to the amount owed to the bank. Yes, MA is not as bad as Atlanta in terms of the inflated bubble and the burst, but the "for sale" signs are still quite expansive here.