Frustration of a Seller's Market
Right At Home Daily: Ilyce's Corner
Ilyce Glink
for Right At Home Daily
for Right At Home Daily
he problem with being a homebuyer these days is that you have the best and worst of home buying all rolled into the current market.
Interest rates are hovering around seven percent, with lower rates available on adjustable rate mortgages. Low interest rates boosts home buying power. At current interest rates, if you have no other debt and some cash to put down on your home, you'll be able to buy three to nearly four times your gross annual income. That's a lot of house, if you can find one.
Now that we're in the 4th year of a strong seller's market, there are fewer homes available for homebuyers to look at and bid on. With less housing stock available, you'll have to make some tough choices. Dealing with the disappointment and frustration at not finding what you want may be even harder.
Your best bet might be to go with a fixer-upper home. Consider choosing a home that needs cosmetic improvements (rather than structural ones) and refinish it to your taste over time. You'll get more house for your money, and possibly one that you'll like enough to stay in for the long run.
Ilyce Glink is the bestselling author of 100 Questions Every First Time Home Buyer Should Ask, and is the Managing Editor of Right at Home Daily.
User login
Navigation
Recent blog posts
- The Year of Breaking Things
- Beware angry dairy farmers
- In praise of computers for kids
- Chemistry Fun with Pennies
- A month’s worth of probiotics for the price of a cabbage!
- Gluten Free Sourdough Bread as an Intuitive Art
- caring for fleece
- A niece! I has one!
- Yearbook Yourself, or, excellent time waster
- Why you should never, ever ask us for photos
Who's online
There are currently 0 users and 14 guests online.
A seller's market? Hardly!
A seller's market? Hardly! Around here at least (CA) it's most definitely no longer a seller's market. With so many homes going in foreclosure, or with being selling off at bargain prices in order to avoid foreclosure, etc. it's a buyer's market indeed.
It's not a seller's market
It's not a seller's market here either. And with much of the country in the throes of the bad mortgage market crash, I find it hard to believe it's a sellers market anywhere. My foreclosure law firm client has a high load, and lots of foreclosures means more advantage to sellers who can easily get your 3-4 times earnings houses for 1/2 - 1/4 of the cost. And their not hard to find either!
Who are you selling to that has no debt, a large down payment, and wants four times their yearly earnings? That doesn't sound like most of the back-to-basics type people I talk to.
Post new comment