Is now the best time to buy a home? I’m seeing more “buy now” before the market and interest rates climb. From the looks of current interest rates, at around five percent, we may have seen the bottom of that graph. Then again, we thought in April of last year we might be looking a the bottom of the real estate market too but it has continued to decline. For every “buy now,” there is a “you’re nuts if you buy now.”
The Portland Housing Blog forum has a group of readers who have some good analysis and are firmly in the wait-the-market-out-camp and look out if you have anything positive to say. There’s no love lost between them and me (illustrated on page 7 of the comments) so take it for what it is.
Daily Wealth leans the other way with Now is the Best Time in History to Buy a House.
The truth probably lies somewhere in between. So do everything you can to educate yourself in light of your own situation. Have a great week.
10 Comments on “Should I Buy or Sell Real Estate Now?”
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Are you JohnG!? So I accused you of listing your rehab at a bubble price…what a shock. How many years have I said we are experiencing a bubble while many on your blog were in denial.
BTW, how is ummm, “childare” doing, how far upside down is he/she?
Surprised you took offense to that post.
BTW, see that the 425 SE 50th home is back on the market and getting a new roof to boot. Wonder why that sale fell through?
I have no idea who JohnG is. I didn’t say that I took offense to the post. It just frustrates me. There has clearly been no love for me on Clint’s blog from day 1. It’s predicted my demise as a Realtor, my divorce and my financial ruin through the NW Hoyt house as things that would have happened by now. All inaccurately. From the bleachers the view has to be different from those on the field. We, like many, chased the market down but we caught it and sold. Not a short sale and not a foreclosure. There are things I would have done differently in retrospect throughout the project but it is what it is. The “fool” (your words) buyer was a corporate relocation coming and going. We don’t know what his relocation packages looked like but he moved because it was worth it. Doing the math from the Case Shiller Index, Hoyt would be “worth” $860k-ish now with the previous sales price as the starting point and somewhat higher if you used the third tier index.
My original post above was to illustrate that there are very different views of our market. Someone is going to be wrong so the best anyone can do is educate themselves and make their determination.
Likely not as much as it frustrates many of us that there was so much denial of the housing bubble. NAR and many realtors and mortgage brokers stoked the fires.
Too bad every buyer from 2004 to 2008 doesn’t have a corporate relocation package. Who’s bailing them out?
The number of people ruined financially by these mortgages is unthinkable. Guess most DON’T think about, they sleep better that way.
Why visit the Portland Housing Blog? Why not defend yourself? There are a few realtors that contribute to the Seattle blog. Sure there is some banter but overall the realtors contribute valuable insight.
It was probably the first time in a year I had visited the site and read an entire thread. There a lot of very smart people over there but there are also a good number who just want to pick a fight regardless from behind an alias. That isn’t me. I’ve never been anybody but Charles as a blog commenter or poster. You were an alias for a long time too. I’ll sit down with anyone that wants to talk about real estate or even wants some insight into what went right and wrong at Hoyt. The personal attacks were simply mean so I just stopped writing about it.
Not that this would make you feel any better but I took quite a few beatings myself from Longboard and JohnG. I do not have the technical expertise of economics which I readily admit to but I can sure tell a lot from life experiences and of those around me. Just like you can talk about your clients, I can talk about all my laid off 55 and older relatives throughout the country, the neighbors who need to sell but are upside down, the neighbors who are draining their 401K’s to stay afloat until that job comes along, the friends who are going into debt covering childcare and food cuz they bought at the peak and bought too much house, now slowly watching their marriage dissolve.
Realtors won big time on the ride up the bubble and now some are even winning big on the ride down as many are forced to sell. Yes, we all have a different perspective on the current situation, it doesn’t make either one of us 100% right as there are many pieces to this puzzle. It just floors me to see so many folks ignoring the fact that many people’s livelihoods were destroyed in this ‘business cycle.’
As for my alias, bearlee, as soon as I learned what a bear vs bull market was I dropped the ‘bear’ to avoid confusion. I have been “Leigh” for a very long time. In fact, you emailed me very early in this process so I couldn’t have been that anonymous. maybe you haven’t noticed cuz I hardly make it over here.
There are a lot few Realtors than there were at the peak so that that means a lot of them lost their jobs too. I’ve always said that the barriers to entry to real estate are too low and I am surprised they haven’t increased in light of the last few years (sure easy for me to say as I am already “in”.) Also a lot of Realtors took their own advice (guilty) and invested in real estate so have shared the pain on the way down. Not looking for sympathy.
If memory serves when we emailed at the beginning you asked me to preserve your alias even though I had your email address through the comment registration. You were anonymous for as long as you wanted to be.
Have a great weekend.
Yes, looking back I gave a lot of personal info on your blog as I did on the Portland Housing Blog re: job losses, poor 1st house decision, and other struggles. Was hoping to protect the spouse as it was I who was giving TMI hoping that others would learn from our mistakes.
Funny thing is, a friend still recognized me on your blog:O)
Guess there are too many Leigh’s around.
Take care.