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Health & Fitness

Are You Missing the Opportunity of Your Lifetime?

Are You Missing the Opportunity of Your Lifetime?

North Atlanta has lived through a long period of stress in the housing market. It truly grieves me that so many people have lost their homes. The part that bothers me most is small children who have lost their homes. Did you know that nationwide, one child out of each classroom has lost the roof over their head? There are a lot of reasons for buying a house, but providing your children a good stable environment that you can afford to pay for has to be one of the most important ones.

But in most bad things that happen to us, there is something good. And the good thing that has come out of this is some people who thought they could never buy a home of their own have been able to do so. In my 18+ years in real estate in Northeast Atlanta, I have never seen a time where house prices and interest rates are as low at the same time as they are today.

Homeownership has taken a hit in most states. Some are much worse than others. Northeast Atlanta has taken a big hit, but not nearly as bad as parts of Florida, parts of California, Ohio, and others. When you hear something on the television, please remind yourself that real estate is local--and Northeast Atlanta is beginning to recover.

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We are seeing the number of houses sold increasing and the prices increasing modestly as well. Most economists believe that this is going to be a long slow recovery. We are Northeast Atlanta and I propose we will exceed the national rate of recovery. Did you know that for every house sold, two jobs are created? That is a major factor in our employment numbers increasing. In Northeast Atlanta the construction and housing industry are the hardest hit areas in employment. We are starting to see a few homes built and we are seeing a lot of foreclosure homes renovated so our communities will be better.

I read yesterday that one child in every classroom has lost the roof over their head in the past 5 years. That is a very strong statement but the present market makes buying a home more affordable in 98 of the 100 largest metro areas in the U.S. Atlanta is number 8 on the most recent list.

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What are the reasons people are not trying to buy? They think they need a big down payment and that is simply not true in our area of Georgia. There are 100 percent fixed rate loans available with rates hovering around 4 percent! They think prices will go lower. This spring for the first time since 2007 it "feels like spring" in the real estate community. Our prices are starting to increase and experts think interest rates might go lower. The fact is they can't go much lower. They think all houses are in bad condition, but that is not the case. Many of them are move-in ready. They think they can't qualify but a credit score of 640 and a dependable job opens the door to homeownership.

So my professional opinion is now is the time to buy, whether you are buying your first house or an investment house or a vacation home. Ten years from now people will look back and say "I wish I had......."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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