Buy Now...Or Wait... (Houston, Sugar Land: real estate, foreclosures, mortgage)

[Josci]

My husband and I intend to move to the Sugarland area. Our original plan was to wait until Summer 2010. We would prefer to wait, but I would hate to regret missing an awesome deal now.

Right now is an amazing time to buy...homes are so cheap and interest rates low. If we wait...the economy could get much better and home prices and rates increase. I am a teacher so real estate and finance are not my speciality.

Any thoughts?

[Wysiwyg]

cant go wrong with sugarland

[chris_ut]

rates will likely drop more in the next few months.

[icon7]

i think rates will drop a bit more in the next few months...but I would not wait until 2010. lots of people are refinancing now. I probably will if rates for 10-15 year notes slip below 4.5 with zero points. due to the rate dropping a lot in the recently, almost all the inventory homes in the larger sections of Telfair have sold.

[Beto]

Now is the time to buy, if you feel comfortable.

[Topaz]

Inventory in Sugar Land (or at least the area of New Territory where we are looking) is low right now, maybe because few people wanted to sell their house during the holidays. So one main problem in buying now is finding something you would like.

[modster]

I am hoping 2009 will represent the bottom of the market. My crystal ball isn't any better than anybody else's, so who knows. But I think it will depend on a few things:

Price of oil - We all love the low prices at the pump, but forty-something dollar a barrel oil will not bode well for Houston's economy. I tend to think that the low oil prices will be short lived. The "economic cushion" we have had will evaporate if oil doesn't get up a bit, and soon. If it does, then I would definitely say 2009 is the time to buy, if not, then the jury may still be out.

Another factor I am hearing from mortgage people is they expect rates to dip more after Obama takes office. I have no idea if that is fact or fiction. If oil starts to recover, coupled with incredibly low interest rates, that would be another sign to buy.

One other thing that makes me hope 2009 will be a point of recovery is the foreclosure factor. Foreclosures have placed a lot of downward pressure on prices. We have foreclosures due to the usual factors, (divorce, job loss) but we had a huge increase because of the loose lending practices as well as some due to the whole mortgage fraud mess. The foreclosures attributed to the latter have pretty much worked through the system, but we are still experiencing the fall out from the loose lending practices. By mid year we will be 2 years into tighter lending practices, so if the economy is reasonably okay, we should start seeing a decline in foreclosures as the sub-prime mess gets further in our past.

If oil stays low, the economy tanks, then we will continue to see a lot of foreclosures due to the lousy economy.

Needless to say, I am hoping for the best and watching the signs that 2009 will be the turn around. With some of the foreclosures and low interest rates, there is definitely some good deals to be had right now.

[Houston456]

As you may already know, you may get a $7500 intrest free loan (INTREST FREE LOAN) from uncle sam if you buy before Jul 2009.

Obviously, that should not be the only reason for your decision.


Note : I mentioned INTREST FREE LOAN twice because the media and the real estate 'professionals' tend to refer that as a CREDIT, which is not true. You have to pay it back in 15 years or when you sell the house for a profit, whichever is earlier.

Originally Posted by Josci

My husband and I intend to move to the Sugarland area. Our original plan was to wait until Summer 2010. We would prefer to wait, but I would hate to regret missing an awesome deal now.

Right now is an amazing time to buy...homes are so cheap and interest rates low. If we wait...the economy could get much better and home prices and rates increase. I am a teacher so real estate and finance are not my speciality.

Any thoughts?

[jfre81]

I'd buy if I can do it and still be financially secure afterwards, after taxes and all that stuff. This would include having an income that I don't expect to not be there for me somehow in the near future. If I'm anywhere close to borderline on any of that, then no. Whatever you do, buy a house because you want to live there, not because you think it's going to make you rich. The latter is partly why this mess started. It's not 2003 anymore.

Oil should come up, at least out of the danger level for the economy here. It's already trending upward slightly thanks in part to a new round of Mideast turmoil. In any case, I think we've seen the bottom in the oil market. I doubt another "bubble" like last summer's will form in the short term. Too many speculators got burned in the last one. My uneducated guess has it topping out around $100/bbl in '09.

[brownybaby]

I say $75 a bbl......to get lifting costs and payroll covered.

But to get back to orginal posts question........I don't know about the SL deals.