Best time to buy a house?

[heartmama]

We live with a relative right now and are watching the housing market in our area. It has certainly bottomed out of what it used to be--lots of houses for sale, many sitting for more than a year.

But do think this is the bottom, or should we keep waiting? I've heard some people say we have at least another year of dropping prices ahead. What do you think? I don't want to buy a house and then have the market continue to fall...

[Denvergirlie]

Bottom in your area? Unknown, will depend on your market. Some markets are most likely already at the bottom, some might still have another 20% or so to fall.

We are renters watching the situation closely as well, but do not have the full 20% to put down in a downpayment, so will be waiting regardless.

Prices aside I would question if this is the best time for you personally?

How "secure" is your job? Do you have any debt? Do you have 6 months of emergency funds in cash to cover a job loss? Do you have a down payment? Are you willing to pay PMI insurance without a full 20% downpayment?

Any idea if you could even get a mortage? What's your credit score?

Aside from just the monthly mortage payment, are you factoring in the insurance, property taxes, possibly increased utilities and maintance issues with a house?

These things are more important to me that what the actual price of the house is. Personally, we are not prepared to own a house ourselves based on the above.

While I am debt free, my partner still has $5K in student loans to pay off and will need a car replacement soon too. I have 4 months of expenses in a savings account and am building that to 6 months and then will save the downpayment.

In our market, I have a feeling that prices will continue to drop some, how much and if that occurs I am not certain but regardless even with the $8K tax credit for buying a home in 2009, we are in no position to own a house.

Of course, you might have already addressed all of our above issues, or you might not have a big of a "security gland" as I do, so you might be comfortable with paying PMI insurance or having debt, etc.

As for prices falling... will totally depend on your market. Detroit is most likely at the bottom, but Chicago might not. Likewise, more rural locations never had the price increases that metro's seemed to expereince.

Good luck in figureing it all out, hopefully some others can chime in as well.

[Belleweather]

I really think they're going to drop more -- there's a whole other mountain of loans that still have to reset/recast, so that is going to affect prices even if nothing else does. Plus, there hasn't been sufficient downward pressure on high-ends prices, and banks aren't releasing all their foreclosed houses on the market, and we're still seeing massive job losses and... yeah. Prices are going to drop more.

That said, I'm sympathetic to wanting to own now and not wait. I've been watching the bubble since 2005 and have always been kind of smug about our decision not to buy. We were intending to wait it out and buy sometime in 2011 or 2012. Until I saw THE HOUSE. It's a 1901 brick Victorian with great bones and lots of interior cosmetic work that needs to be done and I've been salivating over it for 6+ months and can't get it out of my head. It's $25k over what I would want to pay (they're asking $134), and is a heck of a commute, but it's freakin' calling to me!

Waiting is hard. That said, a lot of the problems we're in now were caused by people not waiting when they really should have. Sometimes you've got to suck it up and do the hard thing, you know?

[Amys1st]

The best time to buy a house is when you have at least 20% to put down, have a mortgage loan approved with a decent interest rate, a steady flow of income, a house that you can manage with a payment you can easily pay each and every month for the next 360 months. Plus all the other niceties that come w home ownership- repairs, taxes, insurance, neighbors, property taxes that rise, things that happen in town you are thrilled or not so thrilled with.

Plan on spending 1-3% of your home's value annually on upkeep.

Buy a property that you plan on staying in for a long time and be able to stay in a long time like 7 plus years. Or more like 15 plus years. Allow the market to correct itself, dont let the bank own too much of the property and if the prices continue to fall after you buy, oh well, they will eventually correct them selves in a few years. But it dosent matter, you will be not selling for years.

If you find this property, figure out how much you can spend. Get approved first and then lowball the property. You may find out the seller cannot sell because of too much vested in the property. Tell them to call you when they are ready for a short sale.

Personally, I feel its a buyers market right now esp for first time home buyers. If they have saved up a larger down payment and they find that one, they should be bidding and buying.