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Gina Branch | DFW Realtor® | Dallas Homes | RE/MAX Dallas Suburbs
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3 Top Home Buyer Deal Killers. Source: NAR 4 Bedrooms | 3 Baths | 2-Car Garage | 2682 SF/Tax Handing over the keys is one of the best parts of working with home buyers. It’s the culmination of weeks or months of work. We work hard to make sure each client has a great buying experience.
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I had lunch with the sales staff of a local builder I represent yesterday. A couple of tasty pizzas combined with an interesting conversation led to this post. Many of the potential buyers are walking in concerned about everything they are reading, hearing, and seeing in the national media. “It’s a bad time to buy”, seems to be the news of the day. As we sat there and ate, we jumped onto Google and looked at the rents of an apartment complex within sight of the subdivision. The rent for a 1608 square foot apartment is $1639 a month. We compared that to a brand-new 1620 square-foot townhome. The townhome is priced at $195k. An FHA mortgage with a 3.5 percent down payment results in a mortgage payment of about $1626 including principle, interest, taxes, insurance, mortgage insurance, and HOA dues. For the same money being paid for rent, one could own a townhome. These figures do not take the tax advantages or long-term appreciation in account. Home and interest rates are both low. It will not stay that way. Home prices in North Texas are up 3.5 percent over last year and Collin County is up 5.4 percent. Interest rates will remain where they are as long as the government continues to purchase most of the mortgage loans. They cannot continue to do so forever. I suspect we will look back at this period in 20 years as the golden opportunity of a lifetime.
I was out working in one of my new home developments today. As I chatted with the sales staff about how things were going, a common theme became apparent. Potential buyers are sitting on the fence waiting on home prices and interest rates to drop further! This has been fueled by the reports of nationwide home price drops by many of the national media outlets. The old adage,”location, location, location” comes to mind. All real estate is local! I did an interview locally last week when this news was released discussing the local numbers. Dallas Fort Worth is actually bucking the national trend with average sales prices up 3.2 percent in North Texas and 5.4 percent in Collin County. Prices are not going down here. I looked deeper into the numbers and found that new listings are down 17 percent while sales volume is down only 14 percent. What these numbers indicate is that the market is absorbing inventory at a rate greater than new inventory is coming on the market. The supply of available homes is getting smaller. This helps keep prices stable or rising. To be fair, values may continue to drop in other places depending on a number of factors. Contact a local real estate professional to find out what’s going on in your area. Mortgage interest rates are at 50 year lows. They may fluctuate slightly but I don’t see them trending much lower. The only reason they remain so low today is because the government is buying most of the mortgage paper and holding the rates low. Eventually the government is going to want to push this back into the private sector but the private sector is not going to get back into mortgage backed securities until rates climb. What does all this mean for Dallas Fort Worth home buyers? Now may be one of the best times to purchase a home. Prices are stable in most areas and we’re seeing an upward trend over the past year. Mortgage interest rates are at 50-year lows. It’s time for home buyers in DFW to get off the fence.
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Recent surveys have shown that more Americans have a thirst for buying real estate, with home affordability at record highs and mortgage rates at record lows. In fact, real estate buyer agents report a 59 percent increase in buyer inquiries this year compared to last year, according to a recent survey conducted by the Real Estate Buyer’s Agent Council.
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