Thinking about moving from AZ to Denver

[Spot]

Originally Posted by 2bindenver

I bet you are wrong.

Interest rates are at historical lows, more people coming than going, 92% of people have jobs. First time homebuyers get up to $8,000 back. Fast Tracks getting pushed.

People who can buy now will. Inventory & days on market have decreased every month now for 12 months. Builder inventory is low, and they haven't been pulling permits.

Really, go ahead and wait. What will happen to interest rates if we hit some inflation? Homes are the most affordable right now.

Bank are making profits. I mean really, they borrow money at nearly 0% and lend it to poor slobs at 5% - what a mark up!

I only have 3 properties right now without contracts. I bet I get at least one in tomorrow.

Yeah, based on my research it's quite likely that you are right. The housing market in Denver is actually much healthier than it is out here in AZ. Here we are still seeing big declines in many areas.

I suppose that if someone knows where they will be commuting to for work and they are fairly comfortable picking a neighborhood from a distance, now isn't a bad time to buy. In our case, we weren't sure yet where we would be working, so we didn't want to make a long term commitment on a property. Plus Denver has so many beautiful and unique neighborhoods that we thought we should give ourselves plenty of time to look around.

Do you sell real estate? If so, maybe you can give us a hand when we start to get serious about buying?

[the3Ds]

Originally Posted by 2bindenver

I bet you are wrong.

Interest rates are at historical lows, more people coming than going, 92% of people have jobs. First time homebuyers get up to $8,000 back. Fast Tracks getting pushed.

People who can buy now will. Inventory & days on market have decreased every month now for 12 months. Builder inventory is low, and they haven't been pulling permits.
Really, go ahead and wait. What will happen to interest rates if we hit some inflation? Homes are the most affordable right now.

Bank are making profits. I mean really, they borrow money at nearly 0% and lend it to poor slobs at 5% - what a mark up!

I only have 3 properties right now without contracts. I bet I get at least one in tomorrow.

Most of the houses in my neighborhood have "under contract" signs posted as well.

I will defer to you as you are the expert here. My comments were really aimed at a certain (to be named later) poster who swears that all of suburbia is hell on earth and those of us Cretins who live out here will find ourselves $200K upside down in our homes. Perhaps if we bought during the boom, but since he is still aiming his comments at those who are newcomers, I just was trying to let them know that the sky was not falling.

[the3Ds]

Originally Posted by Spot

After a year of renting, we figure we will have a much better idea of where in the Denver area we want to settle permanently. And it's highly unlikely that property prices will do anything except maybe go down slightly over the next twelve months.

We rented for a year as well and moved to a part of the city that we would not have even looked at if we would have just gone off the threads here. Renting is a great opportunity to give you a little breathing room before committing to a mortgage. Can't say enough good things about it (except you have to pack up again).

By the way, in case you didn't see Vegaspilgrim's post, this thread is a few years old. Apparently someone restarted it and those of us who don't remember to read the dates seem to be talking to ourselves!

[texan4me]

All that being said, wouldn't it be hard to qualify for a home loan when you just relocated and started a new job???? I would think so. Seems like a better idea to rent until you have some stability on your side.

[Brian_M]

Originally Posted by texan4me

All that being said, wouldn't it be hard to qualify for a home loan when you just relocated and started a new job???? I would think so. Seems like a better idea to rent until you have some stability on your side.

Speaking from Very direct experience (7 weeks since we hit Denver, neither of us have jobs currently ~ wife works contracts, we bought in the hot under $200k market), so long as you have Excellent credit (775+), good assets (we put 20% down) and the mortgage is less than about 40% of your after-tax income for the current year, you'll have zero issues.

I don't know how people can stand to rent. We're locked into a 3 month (smart planning told us to go with 3 months, was about the best rate anyway), paying within $20 of our mortgage when it kicks in. This for a 600-ish sq/ft apartment, on the 3rd floor vs. a 2400 sq/ft home w/ 3 car garage (I'll easily put that to use). It's not like this apartment is nice either... it's what I'd consider average. The rental fees are 100% wasted, I get nothing back for that expense, guaranteed. At least with a house I stand the chance of mitigating that expense. We sold our last place earlier this summer for exactly what we had in it (mortgage+updates), meaning we lived there almost for free for 5 years... interest on the loan + insurance probably came out to $200/month. Even renting a room in a shared house isn't that cheap.

Apparently the average home buyer is under contract within 4 days of starting to look in earnest (with a Realtor, not online). We made it 11 days because of multiple offers, full Cash offers (and fast closing), and the other nightmares of the under $200k market here. From the time we went under contract till closing was 5 weeks (3 of those were just waiting on the title company and lender to do their paperwork junk ~ our Realtor said it took 1~2 weeks LESS than what he's seeing as normal right now). So, come looking with the lending secured and ready to move, buy a move-in ready home and you should only need to rent for 2 months.

FWIW, we did NOT "settle" in any shape or form. Well, I guess that's a white lie, the house was bigger than we wanted... but otherwise, we hit each of the other 7 "musts" on our list and a good number of the "wants" too.

Brian

[Mike from back east]

BrianM, thanks for posting a great first-person experience.

What I'd love to know / see (maybe in a new thread?) is exactly what were your MUST haves and your WANT to have items. A lot of first time buyers (Property Virgins?) could use some pointers as to what really matters when picking a home.

Thanks!