Questions regarding buying a home in Ventura/Camarillo/TO

[gav_sharma]

Good point....but you also said the prices are still too high. Another thing thats happening is banks are hoarding up the houses and are not putting the foreclosure properties in market. People are getting to live in their houses for free for months and in some places more than a year after they stop paying their monthly mortgage payments. I guess banks are waiting for the real estate market to settle before they let their inventory on the market otherwise they are shooting themselves in the foot.

[sunny11]

All the people I know who accurately predicted the bubble, are in agreement that we are NOT at the bottom in most places. Those that are at the bottom will likely stall for a bit. There have been blips that indicate we are recovering but it doesn't make sense to buy one in the Camarillo/Ventura area right now. As mentioned above, there are still a lot of foreclosures that will come in the next couple years and you don't want to buy next to one of them. Then the bank sells the house for pennies on the dollar and they are the comp to yours and just cut your value by 30%...oh and an investor bougth it and they can rent it for less than you so you have to lower your rate. It's too risky for someone who plans to move in 3 years anyway.

Good luck!

[SOON2BNSURPRISE]

My only opinion now is with the interest rates. They are low now. Not that this is a guarentee that myself or anyone else will get the best rate. What will happen to the rates? Traditionally when rates are low prices are high. Right now it appears that prices are low and rates are low. Maybe the people that set the rates are in agreement that prices are still too high and they are keeping rates down to get people to buy. That could be another indicator that prices are still up there. One factor is if you have to finance a place you will need to determine the best time to buy based on the cost of money. A $250,000 home at 4.89% is cheaper per month than a $200,000 home with a 8.25% interest rate. It all goes toward what will happen in the future. One thing we know for now is the cost of the money. We don't know what that will be in the future. Then again we don't even know if we can get the best rate in town anyway.

For me I am talking long term and not someone that is looking to sell within the short term. I think you can do better with your money somewhere else than in housing if the plan is to sell in a 3 year period.

[NickelDime]

Originally Posted by hilgi

Wait two years to buy, housing in CA is still overvalued. All bubbles go back to the prices where they started. This bubble most likly started in 2000, some say 1996. 2000 prices would be ok.

A lot has changed since 1996 or 2000. Supply, demand and interest rates have completely changed. Pointing back to a year and saying it will retrace to that level is just plain ignorant.

We all have to live somewhere. If you can buy for the same or less than renting, buy.

This was not true in the bubble years. Renting was almost always cheaper.

As far as affordability goes, I look at median incomes for a given area vs. median prices. In many zip codes, these are tracking nicely. In others, they remain out of whack. Of course, the mix of homes available for sale (along with the # of rental units) will skew the number both directions - when paired with equivalent rent, you get a pretty good barometer of value.