The News and Record has a front page article about the improvement of the housing market. The increase is around 20% over the first quarter of this year over 2012. They list a few reasons for the improvement.
- Mortgage interest rates are still at historic lows. Not sure this is a big one to most folks because interest rates have been super low for a few years now and people still weren’t buying as much.
- Many who were nervous about buying are more confident. This is true- as the economy improves and jobs start coming back, people feel more confident about their future and the American Dream.
- Folks are moving into larger homes because low interest rates are keeping their payments affordable. While this may be true, this worries me a little. Bigger and Better is what got us into trouble in the first place.
- Folks are buying properties for rent. Not sure if they mean buying homes that were formerly rented or buying homes to rent out to folks. I can say from experience that there are a lot of folks taking advantage of the low prices and low interest rates to invest in rental homes. I’ve seen more folks investing in real estate in the last few months. When people can’t buy, they have to live somewhere. So they rent. Logical.
- Pent up demand for purchasing. Folks put their plans on hold for a while and now they are ready to pull the trigger.
All this, combined with the seasonal uptick in the spring has definitely made me busier the last few weeks.
What do you think? Are you making plans to buy soon? Do you think the market is improving?