Is This Spring The Right Time To Buy A House In Charlotte, NC?

One thing news people like to do (and not necessarily well) is to predict when is a good time to buy a home and not a good time to buy a home. Everyone seems to be playing the real estate market like a game of craps at vegas...it is the luck of the roll. Last year the talk was that the market was going to rebound this spring and prices would start increasing. Then it was maybe next year now, then it was we are headed for another round of price dropping (meaning we have not hit the bottom yet). Well the reality is noone knows with any certainity what the market will or will not do. Some things are out of the control of predictors.

But here is a Realtor perspective of what the market is doing right now. Currently interest rates are low. They had been climbing slowly but steadily for the past few months. However; with the stock market in flux right now investors are putting more money into bonds which drives down interest rates. So,current rates are lower now than they have been in a few months.

Home prices have remained pretty much stable for the past few months. with some exceptions in Charlotte (as with any other part of the country) pricing seems to have stabilized. There will always be neighborhoods that are doing better than the average and others that are doing worse than the average.

there is a run on foreclosures in the market right now. As banks are trying to fix some of the propblems they created more homes are falling into foreclosure and the banks are trying to sell their inventory off. This makes buying a home right now a great option.

Inventory is at the highest levels it has been in years. This is a great thing for people looking to buy. Your choices are plentiful out there. There are many choices to make when looking at a house and now you have even more to choose from when you start your search.

Mortgage companies have begun to loosen their credit standards to qualify for a house. I know of two major lenders who have loosened the credit requirements to qualify for a house to more reasonable levels. This is opening more doors for people to purchase a home now than there has been in a few years.

With all these variables; YES it is the right time to look and purchase a home. As a buyer you have historic low interest rates, foreclosures hitting the market daily, inventory levels at all time high levels, and mortgage companies loosening up their rigid credit standards. All this makes the amercian dream of owning a home more affordable to more people.

Dave diCecco
Realtor/Broker
www.davedicecco.com