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The federal tax credit has been extended for first time home buyers, and there is now a provision that may provide home buyers a tax credit even if they already own a home. Interest rates continue to be historically low, and it appears that in many parts of the country home values are starting to stabilize.
If you have always wanted an old house, now might be the time to take the plunge, and start the New Year out right. Markets can be difficult to judge as to when the exact right time is to buy. That is true with the stock market, and also with the housing market. No one wants to purchase a home, and find out that if they had waited a month or six months they could have received a better deal, or to find out that the value of the house drops after their purchase. Signs are starting to point to the housing market stabilizing, and sales beginning to improve. California house sales improved in October, and backlog is being reduced. Home sales in Georgia were up in October, and realtors are becoming optimistic. Home sales in Florida have improved this autumn, and the same is true with Boston’s real estate market.
I don’t claim to be a housing or financial expert, but from what I am reading and seeing it appears that the housing economic crisis of the last several years may finally be behind us. If that is true, then those of you who have been waiting for the right time to purchase that old house, that time might have arrived. As backlogs of homes available begin to dwindle, the purchase prices will begin to head upward again. Check with the real estate experts in the area where you live, and see what their advice is. Depending on what part of the country you live in, the right time to purchase an old house might be still a few months off, but it may be right now.
Another benefit to purchasing that old house now, before the builders gear up to start churning out new homes again, is that there are many excellent contractors who are looking for work. If your old house needs a little restoration, you may never be able to get project estimates as low as those you would receive now.
So give some thought to rewarding yourself and your family with an old house for 2010.
