5 Reasons To Buy A Home Now

With prices declining in many markets, it now makes the cost of buying a home a better financial deal than renting. However, many potential homebuyers are transfixed on the market, wanting to believe prices will drop lower. The question is how low do you expect home prices to fall?

Now is the right time to buy and here are some great reasons to rush to your realtor now;

• Renting isn’t such a great deal. This is all about Economics 101: Demand for rentals the past few years has increased — a consequence of foreclosures and fewer existing renters making the decision to buy – and supply hasn’t kept up as there has been little new construction since the financial crisis hit. That’s pushing up rental prices.

• Mortgage rates are at historic lows. Right now the average mortgage rate hovers around 4.6 percent on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage which is beyond dirt cheap. While many mortgage lenders advertise fire-sale cheap rates that are lower than four percent, the fees almost double to that of the averaged rate loans.

• There is far less competition for buyers. There may be plenty of potential homebuyers at open houses these days, but the anemic sales pace is proof that there are fewer serious buyers looking to make a deal. That makes it less likely you’ll find yourself in a bidding war today. It also means you can negotiate more effectively with eager sellers. Wait to dive in and you could find yourself in a more crowded pool of buyers.

• Qualifying for a mortgage is likely to get harder, not easier. The goal of Washington in the coming years is to shift more of the mortgage market out of the hands of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and into the hands of the private market. It is admittedly too early to know when and what that transition might look like. But whether the government backing is scaled down or disappears all together, that means higher borrowing costs. Moreover, there’s already a new federal regulation being considered that would require banks that want to keep selling 100 percent of their mortgages to Fannie and Freddie to hold borrowers to tougher lending standards.

Its common sense that potential homebuyers want the best price possible but the market is at the lowest it’s been in over 30 years. Wait much longer and you may be spending hundreds more on a monthly mortgage loan.