Finally Time to Buy a House?

As a Realtor, all my friends, family, acquaintances, and pretty much everyone else I meet that knows I'm a Realtor tend to ask me the same question, "Do you think it's a good time to buy a home?"  The answer that I love to give is, "Absolutely, and here's why..."!  Until recently, national media always gave doom and gloom broadcasts on the state of the national real estate market.  The major problem with this is, there is no such thing as a national real estate market.  Real estate sales, values, and trends vary greatly from region to region.  Here in the southwestern region of Indiana, as in much of the rest of the Midwest, our real estate markets were not as adversely affected by the economic downturn as many other places in the United States.

While articles in the past have not given the best outlook for those thinking of buying homes, this trend seems to be changing.  Warren Buffett recently stated in an interview that single family residential homes are a great investment, and that if he had a way to mange them all, he would purchase a couple hundred thousand single family homes to rent out.  While the general public probably doesn't have the capital, or the desire, to make sweeping purchases of this nature, this speaks volumes about how this is a great time to buy real estate as a solid investment.

Prices may continue to fall in 2012 if you look at the overall average of homes in the United States.  The problem with this statistic is that it is heavily weighted by distressed properties.  If you dig deeper into the numbers for our local market, you will see that we are recovering quite nicely!  While people may look at the national numbers and see this as a deterrence from purchasing a home, remember that timing the market for homes is no easier than timing the stock market.  If you're capable of getting a home now, waiting around may not offer much future benefit.

To read more, check out this article: http://money.msn.com/saving-money-tips/post.aspx?ocid=vt_twmsnre&post=2a5cd9e1-be22-4b17-a7fe-48c4a17e5a89