Buying a Home Today

How Smart Is It to Buy a Home Today?

I have had several clients ask if buying a home today is a good idea. Whether you’re buying a vacation home or selling your current house, if your needs are changing and you think you need to move, the decision can be complicated. You may have to take personal or professional considerations into account, and only you can judge what impact those factors should have on your desire to move.

However, there’s one category that provides a simple answer. When deciding to buy now or wait until next year, the financial aspect of the purchase is easy to evaluate. You just need to ask yourself two questions:

Do I think home values will be higher a year from now?
Do I think mortgage rates will be higher a year from now?

From a purely financial standpoint, if the answer is ‘yes’ to either question, you should strongly consider buying now. If the answer to both questions is ‘yes,’ you should definitely buy now.

Nobody can guarantee what home values or mortgage rates will be by the end of this year. The experts, however, seem certain the answer to both questions above is a resounding ‘yes.’ Mortgage rates are expected to rise and home values are expected to appreciate rather nicely.

What does this mean to you?

Let’s look at how waiting would impact your financial situation. Here are the assumptions made for this example:

The experts are right – mortgage rates will be 3.18% at the end of the year
The experts are right – home values will appreciate by 5.9%
You want to buy a home valued at $350,000 today
You decide on a 10% down payment

Here’s the financial impact of waiting to buy a home:

You pay an extra $20,650 for the house
You need an additional $2,065 for a down payment
You pay an extra $116/month in your mortgage payment ($1,392 additional per year)
You don’t gain the $20,650 increase in wealth through equity build-up

So there are many things to consider when buying a home. However, from a purely financial aspect, if you find a home that meets your needs, buying now makes much more sense than buying next year.

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So, if you are considering buying a home today in Southwest Florida, I encourage you to explore our website to find information about communities in Southwest Florida.

If you are buying a home in a golf community, you will find it’s more complex than a typical home purchase. As you can probably imagine, there are significant differences between golf communities. There are many different fee structures, membership options, pet restrictions, demographics and many other details that apply to the SWFL golf communities.

We specialize in golf community real estate and we’ll help you navigate more than 150 different golf communities in our area. If you prefer a more direct approach, we will provide a list of properties and communities that meet your needs.

Also, if you are considering new construction, remember the contractor’s real estate agent represents the builder’s best interest, not yours. There is no cost to you to have an agent represent you. In fact, I may be able to help you save money and negotiate for extras which the builder may not let you know about.

If you’re looking for information about a specific community in Bonita Springs, Estero or Naples, please contact me and I will prepare a custom market report for you. I will provide the market information and insights to help make sure you select your dream home!

Lastly, I will handle all contract negotiations for your property from offer to close!