Why Is Now a Great Time To Buy Phoenix Real Estate?

Why buying real estate now is incredible timing
October 29th, 2008

The data, especially for real estate, are teasing us at this point. Home prices continue to decline and sales numbers are rising in many areas, on-market inventory is easing, but consumer confidence has plunged.

The headline for MSNBC.com was: “Home prices fall by sharpest annual rate ever.” “Ever,” here, means that the Case-Shiller 10-city index fell a bit more than it ever has in its 21 years of existence. In other words, no, we’re not in Depression-era territory here. Meantime, the Case-Shiller index of homes in 20 cities produced a 16.6% decline, as against the 16.3% fall in July. As Aaron Smith and Ryan Sweet comment in Moody’s Economy.com, “Although the year-over-year rate of decline in home prices grew larger, there are signs that the pace could soon moderate. Over the last three months, the year-over-year rate of change has fallen 0.9 percentage points.”

Meantime, the month-over-month price declines have about been cut in half. “With home sales set to weaken and the financial crisis deepening, though, the chance that prices will fall more quickly cannot be discounted, even if mortgage rates are lower.”

Though the news media continues to report on the real estate market with the assumption that prices will continue to fall for several more months and the market won't recover in the foreseeable future, the signs of gradual improvement continue to appear. Yes, there are investors picking up bargain-basement foreclosure properties--but yes, that's what needs to happen at this point. And the fact that there are buyers, sometimes multiple offers, for foreclosure properties suggests that we're nearing a floor upon which the future real estate market can be constructed.

Another indication that we're reaching that floor was the number of professionals who went to the recent California Association of Realtors convention, and the fact that there was such a positive buzz in the air. This has in the past proven to be an accurate early indicator of an improving market, as it almost certainly will again today.

It is very likely a great time to be buying properties, which is why seasoned investors are doing so, and a great time to be preparing for an improving, firming market. We will watch the developments closely. So far, they're running very true to form, despite the fact that this slowdown has been so unusual in so many ways.

Buying bank owned and lender owned properties is the way to go. The bargains are out there, even at 100% financing with certain, private lenders.

Check out HistoricCentralPhoenix.com for some homes for sale with 100% financing. That's right...ZERO down, even in today's lending market. Just take a look and see how it's done.