Now may be a good time for first-time home buyers to make a house purchase. With home prices still on the way down, and with the $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit offered by the federal government, new house hunters may be tempted to rush right in and make a purchase, maybe even buying a home after seeing a handful of homes listed for sale.
In fact, 53 percent of home-sale transactions in March were by first-time buyers, says the National Association of Realtors.
While it may be tempting to run in and get a home while prices are still relatively low, I would advise first-time buyers to take a deep breath, step back and take your time. With so many homes on the market these days, first-timers have a luxury that buyers in most recent years did not -- time. There are more sellers than buyers in the market, so you have to worry less about losing the home of your dreams to another bidder. Not like when I purchased my first home, about seven years ago.
My mistake
When I bought my house, the housing market was still hot, and when you saw something you liked, you had to get in a bid in quickly. In my case, I put a deposit down on a lot in a small community of homes being built by a local home builder in New Jersey.
While for the most part I like my home, I sometimes wish that we did more of a complete search when my husband and I were house hunting, and not buy one of the first homes we saw.
We looked at less than five housing opportunities before putting a deposit down on our current home. (And to my husband's credit, it was because I was in a rush to find a place.)
No way out
When we bought the home, we got a good amount of space for the money, and it was a brand-new home, but I wonder if we should have waited to purchase, so we could have a better location and be situated in a more highly rated school district.
And now that the housing market has slowed down, credit being so tight, and the economy being the way it is, the last thing we'd do is put our house on the market to trade up to a better school district. Had we waited, we may have been able to buy at a better price and would have better schools for our kids.
What you can do
If you are looking to buy a home, take your time, look at as many homes as you can, and compare their pluses and minuses. You may think the first house you see is perfect, but chances are, there are others out there that are as good, if not better.—Lauren Baier Kim