What are you waiting for?

The timing is perfect:

If you have been on the fence about buying a home and you are waiting for a "sign" that everything is going to be alright, this is your sign! Forbes magazine has recently named Salt Lake City #1 on the top 10 list for "best cites for bargain house-hunters". If that is not enough for you, at the same time that the Forbes magazine came out, Time magazine has published an article stating "Ignore the headlines". Time magazine says now is the time and Forbes says "This is the place".

Why buy in Utah?

Utah is a great place to live. Our recreation and mountainous valley's are out of this world, however this is not the reason Forbes has decided we are the best bargain in the market. Forbes goes on to say that in order to get a great bargain you need a "buyers" market where there is "healthy job growth and more houses available than people to buy them. This is not due to foreclosures and economic downturn, but to overbuilding that should balance out in time." Utah is adding jobs faster than anywhere in the country and our net migration is expected to rise quickly this year. The abundance of homes will be consumed and this market will be ripe for the sellers. The economic boom that is going on right now in Salt Lake city is drawing residents from all over the country. It is said that 1,000 jobs will be created when manufacturing giant, Procter & Gamble open their new paper productions plant in Utah.

Why buy now?

According to Time magazine, if you plan to buy a home and stay put for at least five years and have been waiting for the perfect entry point, "It's time to get serious before an inevitable rise in interest rates wipes out your advantage". Anything that can be gained by waiting to see if home prices will come down will be offset by rising financing costs. The chances are if you are looking to buy a home here in Utah the prices are not falling so you are basically waiting around for higher interest rates. It is still a buyers market here in that we do have more inventory available than we are used to here, but not by much and with smart buyers entering the market from around the country the gap is closing. Time goes on to quote an example of buying now verses waiting to for prices to fall while rates go up:

If you are looking to buy a home and the current list price for the home is $218,900. In this example you put down 20$ and get a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at today's rate of 5.5%. Your monthly principal and interest payment on this home come to $994.31. If you wait a year and for some reason that home does drop by 10% to $197,010, but the fed is now trying to stem inflation by raising the interest rate by just 1% to 6.5%, your monthly payment would be $994.94. The point is you are paying the same amount you have saved nothing and if you are currently renting its actually costing you more to stay where you are by not taking advantage of the tax savings.

About what I have said:

In the previous blog I told you not to listen to the media and to listen to a Realtor®. In these two cases I have sighted above I have done the research and agree 100% with the articles. So there you have it no matter what you want to believe you have your local Realtor®, Time magazine, and Forbes magazine agreeing on one simple thing: If you are going to buy this year NOW is perfect time.

-Dave Jungst
(801) 330-3963