Why is ANYONE considering buying a house right now in this market unless you have to? (Chicago: property taxes)

[Schnooks]

The housing market isn't close to bottoming out and sellers around here aren't budging hardly at all in asking prices. Why would you want to buy when as soon as you sign the value of your house is going to go down?

[sukwoo]

Many people don't have the option of waiting.

[IcantSELLmyHouse]

Most are not buying and they wont until they DROP the price ALOT!!!!!!
I Can't Sell My House

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Schnooks

The housing market isn't close to bottoming out and sellers around here aren't budging hardly at all in asking prices. Why would you want to buy when as soon as you sign the value of your house is going to go down?

Neither you nor anyone else knows where the bottom is. You make it sound as if market timing is a basic motor skill. It's not.

[gardener34]

According to the tax assessor in our county, our property went up 2% in value last year... if you can believe that. Yep, our property taxes actually were increased.

[DonkeyTeeth]

It's debatable whether most Chicago area neighborhoods are seeing major drops in home values. The last report actually said that median home prices in the Chicago metro were up .8% from a year ago, not down.

The news media focuses on the most sensational aspects of the housing slowdown, especially the death spirals in prices happening in places like CA, Vegas, and FL. It doesn't mean every house on every street in every town in the country has instantly lost 20% of its value. If you bought overpriced new construction a few years ago or were in the market to flip you might have some reasons to sweat. But in general the Chicago market looks like one where buyers and sellers are both playing very cautiously, which might actually be good thing for home values in the long run. For people thinking of buying a family home in an established neighborhood at price in line with the market, I doubt they'll end up deep in the hole after 5-10 years.

[aragx6]

I wouldn't buy a place right now thinking that in 2 or 3 years I'll have made a lot of money, but if you are in it for a long-term investment now might not be a bad time at all.

[NYrules]

Ya, I'm in Orland Park and the home values in the town are still going up! They aren't going up much, but they are going up.

[Steve-o]

Theyre going up here too. My cousin had a problem selling his townhome in Round Lake, took them 7 months, but hey! It sold!

If I had the time and money, Id consider buying right now.

[gardener34]

Most of the chicago area never really experienced the booms of the coasts and FL. Although certain (think teardown) areas were hitting a 30% increases yearly. People have just got to get over that. It will NEVER happen again in our lifetime. It shouldn't have happened in the first place.

The rule pre-boom used to be, you have to own a property for 5 years to make a profit. Then it got changed to a 1-year rule cause of speculators and flippers. Now it is back to the 5-years rule again.

Just my 2 cents. Maybe I am wrong.