I think my realtor is full of it....prices going up in spring?

[LIgirl74]

I think in reality...nobody really knows what's going to happen with the housing market. I personally don't see it going up any time soon and nobody knows if it will come down more. I read an article that stated something like, if you think you can time the market, think again...b/c by the time you see home prices going up, it's too late to buy at the bottom. If you think about it, it's very true. My husband and I own a condo and were thinking of renting after we sell so we can keep an eye on the market but after reading that article...it made me think twice.

Honestly, if you can buy a home now, I would do it as it's been mentioned on here before, banks are tightening up on who they are going to lend out too. I know once we sell our condo, we plan on going in a home and we want to make sure this is where we will want to be for the next 30 years b/c you just never know if you buy a home and the market comes down again..you basically are stuck there until it turns around...which in the 1990's this actually happend to a family member of mine and he had to wait with 2 kids in a 1 b/r co-op until the market went up, otherwise, he would have taken a huge loss on his co-op. When you buy a home, you can't think of it as a temporary thing...as you never know what the future holds as far as an investment.

I had a friend who purchased his home in 1988 for $180,000 then another friend of mine purchased a home in 1998 (10 years later) and paid the exact same price in the same area. Basically prices were stable for 10 years...so all in all, you never know what the market holds.

As for your realtor though, I don't think the market is going to turnaround that soon...but again, just my opinion.

[TomMoser]

Actually, home prices were not stable at all from 1988 to 1998. 1988 was the peak of the 1980's market, then prices fell from 1989 through about 1993 and slowly climbed back up.

We could be facing a repeat of this, with prices peaking in 2006, falling from 2007 through 2010, then slowly climbing back up to 2006 levels by 2016.

[LIgirl74]

Originally Posted by TomMoser

Actually, home prices were not stable at all from 1988 to 1998. 1988 was the peak of the 1980's market, then prices fell from 1989 through about 1993 and slowly climbed back up.

You are correct I forgot to mention that my cousin purchased his co-op in 1988. Bye the time he went to sell, prices had fallen to the point where he would have to have had taken a loss to sell the co-op...That also would make a lot of sense as to why my 2 friends paid the same amount on each of their houses 10 years apart. Sorry to not have explained myself so well with it as you did.

[mathjak107]

bought an investment co-op in 1987 in nyc 2 weeks before the stock market crash of 1987... paid 74,000 ,,,, it dropped to around 56,000 or so.... today it is 175,000....

did the drop i missed matter? not a bit