WSJ: Time to Buy

Is now the time to buy? Vote at the end of this blog.

The Wall Street Journal today published an article that said despite gloomy real estate reports, such as last week’s S&P/Case-Shiller report that showed housing prices have fallen to 2002 levels, a compelling case can be made that now is the time to buy a home.

The article, titled Why It’s Time to Buy, pointed to a variety of factors including:

Mortgage rates near a 50-year low.
Affordability, caused by a glut of foreclosed homes, as well as an almost a complete standstill in housing construction.
Demographics – housing formations are on the rise.

The article noted that at least for now, the mortgage deduction is still in place. It also noted that in many parts of the country it is now less expensive to buy than to rent. And if you live in your home long enough to pay off your mortgage, you will be living rent-free. The article, however, did not address the Denver market specifically.

Some prospective buyers who have been waiting for the absolute perfect place, the exact bottom, to sign on the dotted line – and this might be it, at long last.

“The family with elementary school kids and a puppy when the housing debacle began five years ago now has middle-school kids and the dog weighs 80 pounds,” Doug Yearly, CEO of Toll Brothers Inc., told investors last month, the WSJ noted. “Some of our clients, after waiting so long, are starting to move off the fence and into the market, motivated by attractive pricing, low interest rates, and most important, the desire to take the next step in their lives.”