We keep saying what a great time it is to be a buyer in this market. Well there was a recent article in the Washington Post that echoes our same thoughts. I just wanted to share this article from this weekends Washington Post real estate section. If you need any help selling, buying or just have some questions, please let us know if there is anything we can do to assist you.
These Days, First-Time Home Buyers Are Primed to Cash In By Ilyce R. Glink with Samuel J. Tamkin Saturday, March 21, 2009; Page F05
In the nearly 16 years that I've been writing this column, I've never seen a better market in which to be a first-time home buyer.
The rising tide of foreclosures has pushed down home prices significantly over the past 18 months. Homes, relative to income, are about at the historic norm, which means they're more affordable than they've been in at least a decade.
Beyond that, if you buy a foreclosed property, you might wind up spending even less, as lenders struggle to process all of the foreclosures and short sales that are piling up. (If there were no more foreclosures in Florida, it would take the courts nearly two years to process all of the foreclosures on the docket today.)
Not only have homes come down in price significantly, but 30-year fixed-rate loans are at about 5 percent. Some first-time buyers are getting 15-year rates at 4.5 percent or lower. These are historically low interest rates that will seem downright cheap if rates rise above 7 percent, which they will probably do several years from now.
Spending less to finance a property means you can get more for your money or save more for retirement or other purposes. With interest rates so low and home prices falling, homeownership becomes affordable to many first-time home buyers.
Also, first-time home buyers (defined as those who have never owned a home or have not owned a home in the past three years) who close on a home purchase by Dec. 1 can get up to an $8,000 tax credit on their 2009 income tax return. If you bought a house after Jan. 1, you can file for the credit on your 2008 tax return.
This year, about 4 million people will buy a new or existing home.
For the rest of the article follow this link--
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/19/AR2009031904138.html
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