Housing Bubble !!!
i just read something about the housing bubble (if there actually is one, it is hard to determine).
if interested go to www.bankrate.com/brm/news/real-estate/20040724a1.asp
i am curious to here what other people believe about the whole bubble scenerio.
thanks.
Please forgive my sarcasm on the "Real Estate Bubble"
Since the post depression era real estate has remained stable!
So Is it full speed ahead?
Are we headed for a crash?
The housing bubble may burst!
It might inflate!
Rates might skyrocket!
Housing prices may plummet!
Two-thirds of Americans own their homes!
American's spend just under 40% of their income on housing and housing related expenses!
Approach home buying with the attitude of a savvy stock investor. We've long preached the benefits of buy-and-hold investing. The same approach translates well to the home-buying market.
The Office of Federal Housing Oversight recently released its house price data for the first quarter of 2004. U.S. home prices rose 7.7% over the first quarter of 2003.
The median price for an existing home rose to $170,000 in 2003, up 15 percent from just two years earlier. Yet housing actually grew more affordable during that period as the typical mortgage rate fell to 5.74 percent from over 7 percent. The average monthly payment on a median-priced home was 17.8 percent of median family income in 2003, down from 18.4 percent in 2001, according to the National Association of Realtors.
“Our own sense is there will be a slowing of price appreciation but no widespread price corrections,” said Nicolas Retsinas, director of Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.
A government report issued last month startled many analysts, showing that home prices rose in the fourth quarter at an annualized rate of more than 14 percent, the biggest one-quarter jump in nearly 25 years.
David Seiders, chief economist for the National Association of HomeBuilders, predicts sales will drop only 2 percent this year from last year’s 7.2 million, which was a third straight record year.
How exactly should you play this one?
I say on your mark. Get set. Buy, sell, hold, build, borrow, or refinance.
I have been dealing with real estate for a long time and I use a simply approach in good times and bad times "KNOW YOUR MARKET"