We are looking forward to this time as we are sure you are…
This may be the moment to seize
April 15, 2008
BY PAUL KELMA—Suburban Chicago News
Today might be an ideal time to buy a home.
Bill Basic has seen this time come around maybe three times in the past 25 years.
The long time homebuilder and president of the SouthWest Suburban Homebuilders Association ticks off the key points:
· Interest rates are at historic lows.
· Mortgage money is available to qualified buyers.
· Rising rents are roughly equal to monthly mortgage payments.
· Prices are stable.
· Builders are holding off price increases even though their own costs are still rising.
· Many are offering incentives such as free upgrades on inventory homes they need to sell.
It is THE single biggest wish in the American dream of home ownership: the “buyer’s market.”
Basic saw those conditions in 1983-86 and again in 1989-91, first when the market stalled during the presidency of Jimmy Carter, with interest rates near 22 percent, and again during the first Gulf War.
After each, pent-up buyer demand, dropping interest rates, too much inventory and stable prices opened the floodgates of a home buying upturn. He sees the pre-conditions for that kind of upturn right now.
And once it starts — and it will, with growing population and pent-up demand—prices will rise and the buyer’s market will be history.
“The time to buy is now. A lot of people are ‘down’ on housing and the (economic) times, but you can always find some bitterness. People who sit on the sidelines … if they’re going to sit on the fence, they’re going to be kicking themselves,” he said. “Once that inventory id down, you will see prices rise.”
This may be the moment to seize