Can we afford to buy?

[elflord1973]

Originally Posted by HeatherLynn822

Obviously not :eye roll:
But by the time we are ready to sell, we have no doubt it will have gone up significantly in value.

That depends on when you sell. Also as I pointed out before, it's not enough for it to go up -- it has to go up enough to pay for your closing costs (6% realtor commission and closing costs for both when you bought it and sold it)

Try playing with one of those calculators. The break even period is usually about 6 years. If you're staying put longer than that you are probably better off buying (but that assumes a normal rate of appreciation and normal investment returns -- the stock market went up while housing went down since you bought)

[shmoov_groovzsd]

Originally Posted by elflord1973

That depends on when you sell. Also as I pointed out before, it's not enough for it to go up -- it has to go up enough to pay for your closing costs (6% realtor commission and closing costs for both when you bought it and sold it)

Try playing with one of those calculators. The break even period is usually about 6 years. If you're staying put longer than that you are probably better off buying (but that assumes a normal rate of appreciation and normal investment returns -- the stock market went up while housing went down since you bought)

Great point.
This also doesnt take into account the upwards direction our "historically low interest rates" which are going to go up as well as the value of the dollar and possible inflation. In other words, many forces are at play here which can impact the status quo when it comes past appreciation trends.

This can certainly keep prices flat for a while.

[newjersied]

home prices aren't going to drop much more if any in a decent area with a good school system and reputation for being a community that serves commuters to major metropolitan areas. quite frankly there's plenty of pent up demand for housing, folks have waited/wasted 4-8years for prices to drop and hopefully they've shaved off debt enough to cork their noses and dive in.

truth be told, you pump a trillion bucks into any economy and you'll see inflationary risks all around, we just haven't called it inflation because not enough folks have jobs yet so we can pump interest rates up without tanking the economy.

be confident in your choices, remember life is shorter than you think. we're entering an era where nearly everyone that has 1/2 brain will be millionaires...