Should I buy or wait....

[joongbo]

My husband and I are about to close on a house very soon. We weren't planning to buy a house just yet, but when our landlord told us that she wanted to sell the condo that we're renting right now to other potential buyers or have us buy it...we knew for sure that we wanted to own our own house. Mind you...we weren't even saving for a house, but w/ the interest rates sooo low...we knew that this was our chance to buy our own home. If you know you can afford the monthly mortgage, utility bills on top of other bills, maintaining a home...and it's something you want to do...Why not?

[Rubi3]

Originally Posted by JERSEY MAN

I say flat for awhile to maybe a small rise. If people don't get jobs, and business's aren't hiring that doesn't help people buy homes. But who am I.

I say you are JERSEY MAN. If I'm wrong, my apologies.

[bababua]

Originally Posted by gbmohan

I'm still skeptical to buy, even with all the talking about housing had hit bottom. Though I'm ready to buy, should I buy a home now or just wait....

Nobody can give you a honest answer. You are the only person who really knows your situation. All things being equal and just talking about the housing market I would imagine most people of sane mind would say that you could do much worse then to buy now.
Then again how is your commute? What is your financial situation? How do you like your present living situation? Answer those questions yourself and you will get your answer. I for one am looking to move up in the world. I am doing this for a few reasons other then the fact I can do it. The primary reason is I hate driving to work and I want to be as close to work as possible to avoid tolls and gas and all that other crap. So that seals the deal for me.

[MaverickDD]

Originally Posted by MaverickDD

If you can find a good deal that meets your housing requirements, go ahead and buy. But if you're questioning whether or not we're at or near market bottom, consider some hard data instead of pundit's persiflage.

Take a look at this chart: https://www4.state.nj.us/DOBI_MRT4CL...closureReports (Click on Summary by Municipality. Then Click PDF.)
After a two year 'lull', a second wave of foreclosures is about to hit the market. This will not bode well for price stabilization, much less, appreciation.

Originally Posted by JG183

oh baloney, I've been hearing this for 4 f-ing years...

the holders of those foreclosed properties aren't stupid -- they know to have a slow, controlled release of those properties onto the market.

Home builder sentiment holds near seven-year highs - Yahoo! Finance

Wow! What's eatin' you JG183 man? So hostile... why?

Did you look at the chart? My statement is not opinion or conjecture. It's plain and clear from this New Jersey Banking Department report that foreclosures are on the rise again. Hence, thousands of foreclosed properties will come to the resale market here in New Jersey. They WILL affect pricing.

The OP asked for an opinion. I gave him mine. More so, I supported it with data.

You don't seem to like my opinion. That's okay... you're free to disagree. But disliking what you 'hear' does not make it untrue.

The article you reference introduces a straw man argument. How does it address the issue of foreclosures affecting inventory and in turn, value? It doesn't.

Instead, your article focuses on national home builder sentiment. (Not NJ specific, not existing homes sales, etc.) Yet regardless of the marketing spin the article puts forth, you missed this:

• A reading below 50 means more builders view market conditions as poor than favorable. The index has not been above 50 since April 2006.

According to the article, the index is now at 47, hence at present, more builders view market conditions as poor rather than favorable.

So what does this imply about builders' expectations of price movements? They're certainly not upward bound in the immediate future.

As for whether or not the holders of those foreclosed properties are stupid, ponder that for a while...

[JG183]

you presented your opinion in a bearish fashion... it's speculative to say that their foreclosure numbers can predict that we're at or near market bottom.

it's granular data -- when we are a few years into the future, and all the numbers have been tallied/finalized, I feel strongly that history will show that this was indeed the bottom (when you change the scale of the graph, you could even say that we've been at the "bottom" for 4 years now).

NJ is not a homogenous state, thus the old cliche "all real estate is local" definitely applies. So, while some locales may stagnate, banks are working with the borrowers, they understand what the fallout would be like, and do not want to go through it all again, because there is no way they are going to get bailed out again.