The Cape Cod Real Estate Journal

Media Begins To Suggest It's Time To Buy A Home
It's starting as just a trickle, but some media outlets are beginning to call a bottom and are encouraging readers to get off the sidelines.Unrelenting reporting of a recession continues to keep consumers fearful, (whether or not a recession actually occurs) keeping pent-up demand for housing "on the sidelines." Some members of the financial press, however, are beginning to suggest that a bottom is near, and that buyers should get out and start looking for bargains in homes. Time Magazine ran a piece this week titled, "Ignore the Headlines!" by Dan Kadlec, where he notes that Fed rate cuts always "lift the economy eventually." He also makes the case that buying a home today will beat waiting another year even if home prices drop an additional 10 percent. In the article, the author makes a case that is impossible to argue with.. To buy a $218,900 home at 5.5 percent is $994.31 a month. To buy next year at $197,010 at 6 percent will cost $994.94. The irony is that in the time Kadlec did his research and when the magazine came out, interest rates were already back over 6 percent, making his example all the more compelling. Does it make any sense to hold off six months to a year to save $.63 cents a month? And that's assuming that sellers, in this generally affluent market, will participate in reducing their properties 10%.....