1. You can get a great price. We're four to five years into the biggest housing bust in modern history and prices have come down a long way. Will prices fall further? Sure, they could. You'll never catch the bottom and most likely will miss it completely.
2. Mortgages are cheap. You can get a 30 year fixed rate loan for less than 4.5% free money. What's not to like? These are the lowest rates on record. If/when inflation picks up, you won't see these rates again in your lifetime. Should we get deflation, and rates go down, you can refinance!
3. You'll save on taxes. You can deduct the mortgage interest from your income taxes. You can deduct your real estate taxes too!
4. It'll be yours! You can have the kitchen and bathrooms you want. You can move the walls, build an extension or paint everything bright orange. You will feel better about your own place if you own it rather than rent it.
5. You'll get a better home. It can be really hard to find a good rental. Generally speaking, if you want the best home in the neighborhood, you're better off being the owner.
6. It offers some inflation protection. Over the long term housing has tended to beat inflation by a couple of percentage points a year. Especially in Orange County. That's valuable inflation insurance, especially if you're young and raising a family and thinking about the next 30 or 40 years. According to CAR, statewide medium price is up 8.6% for the past year and it is the 10th consecutive year-over-year gain!
7. It's risk capital. No, your home is not the stock market and you shouldn't view it as the way to get rich. But if the economy does surprise us all and start booming, sooner or later real estate prices will head up too. Equity in a home is another way of linking part of your portfolio to the long term growth of the economy and still managing to sleep at night.
8. It's forced savings. You're just paying yourself by building equity. As a forced monthly saving, its good discipline. It's not all about appreciation, think debt reduction too.
9. There is a lot to choose from. CAR's unsold inventory index for single-family resales in August was 6.1 months vs. 4.6 months a year earlier. More keep coming onto the market too. That means great choices as well as great prices.
10. Sooner or later, the market will clear. Demand and supply will meet. The population is forcasted to grow by more than 100 million people over the next 40 years. Prices will rise and so will interest rates.
Provided by: wsa.com
