I participate heavily on Trulia Voice , a site for buyers, sellers to come and ask real estate related questions; local or global; general or specific. This is also a site for Realtors® to come and exchange ideas.
One of the recent questions is whether this is a good time to buy and sell a home considering the current market.
The customer wonders if he should worry about whether the market is going up or down if he wants to buy and sell a home in locations with similar market trends.
Funny he should ask.
I have been advising my clients that this is a great time to either swap properties or move up or purchase investment properties.
If you are both buying and selling and the market is similar (for even playing field); if the new home is $800K and the old home is $600K, both at 5% lower than last year would have. You'd be saving $40,000 on the new home and losing $30,000 on the old home, with a net difference of $10,000 savings if you swap the two homes.
Of course, you are going to incur the expenses but you would have that no matter when you sell or buy. .
Another advantage to me is that since property value is going down, the property tax for you new home will be relative lower if you buy it now then if you wait for the housing price to come back up to sell your house and then buy it on an ‘UP' market.
Thanks, David, Lisa and Krista, for your comment.
I actually got this idea not only from Trulia but also from Paul's post
http://activerain.com/blogsview/267128/Psst-Realtors-are-buying
Sylvia
Thanks, Paul, for visiting and the great comment. I also always tell my clients that it will be almost impossible to hit the top of the market or chase the bottom of the market. They tend to agree. Also, we have seen a lot more buyers out there after a few relative quite months. Will be interesting to see how the winter shake out for real estate here in Marin.
I have been a bit remiss on my own blogs, so I am going to try to spend more time here and on my own site.