Is this a bad time to buy a house?

[Trurl]

I've never owned a home but due to circumstances I feel pretty desperate to sign something by the end of the Summer.  I also feel like there's a good chance that if I wait 3 months that prices will be significantly lower.

Is waiting a good idea or is trying to time the market futile?

[Nintex]

If it's a long term investment and you plan to stay there for a number of years buying a house is always a good idea regardless of the developments in pricing.

There a only a few circumstances where renting is the better option.

[Positive Touch]

trying to get a house quickly because you're desperate could set you up for one of the worst mistakes you'd ever make. home buying is hard enough as is and it's something you really wanna take your time with.

[Nintex]

I'm not sure, after all if you buy a house you can sell it again later. Unless it is in a really bad shape.
With rent, you know the rent will only go up from the minute you sign and once you leave you won't get any of your rent back.

If mortgage regulations weren't so strict I would've bought a house already, I can easily afford it.
Currently I'm paying about 1000 Euro in rent, including electricity etc. . Which over the 4 years I live here has accumulated in ~40k of monthly rent payments.

With my upcoming pay increase and some savings, I should be able to get a 250k / 10 year / 1% interest mortgage by this time next year, which is just about enough to buy a decent apartment or small house.
The monthly payment would be 600 - 700 Euro. So not only would I own it, it would also be cheaper than renting.

The way I see it, granted the house is in a decent shape and at an ok location (maybe have someone check it out for construction faults or defects?)
interest rates are probably at their lowest and demand for housing will not go down because COVID-19 is all about locking yourself indoors.

Prices could do down in the next 3 months though but by how much is anyone's guess. So you can either negotiate a lower price now, or wait it out a bit with the risk that all the good stuff has been sold.

[jorma]

Start looking for places now but don't buy for a few months, or until you find that special home that will be worth the cost of living there even if the market drops hard.
eventually it's

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probably

[close]

going to be a sound investment either way

[Akala]

There is no way I would buy a house in the US right now with a looming eviction/foreclosure crisis? Not to mention the stuff hitting the market due to owners dying or going bankrupt due to rona. I can see a lot of foreign investors or established money getting a lot of property for a song in a few months.

[CatsCatsCats]

Could be great deals on the horizon, but look now. Honestly, owning my little spot in the woods kept my shit together this year. Buy land mother fucker

[james]

Don't listen to the guy who thinks a canal is a house

[Tripon]

Depends on where you are.
If you're in L.A. or NY and the real estate market is out of whack, wait since unfortunately, there is going to be a lot of families going to lose their house.

There's also going to be a number of assholes who decided to be Airbnb speculators that are going to be blown up.

[Trurl]

Thanks for the reassurance Nintex.

[BIONIC]

It's a bad time in general, my dude

A bad time for you, is a good time for me 

[Madrun Badrun]

Wait for SARS 3. 

[El Babua]

There should be another stock market collapse coming soon. Don't know if real-estate will follow suit.

I'm pretty sure most foreclosed homes are gonna be sold, if not bundled to private interests without individual buyers having a chance to even bid. I believe the banks are well prepared to profit off people losing their homes out of the get-go this time

So yeah, look first and hope someone doesn't outbid you if shit hits the fan.

[Cerveza mas fina]

Not often one can agree with nintex but its true

If you buy to live 10-15 years its almost always a good idea

Lets say you pay off your mortgage on a 200k house but the house dropped 100k in value, you stilæ get 100k!

Now if you paid 200k rent over that period... You get a big nothing.

Sure there is other costs, but also other deductibles etc.

[Bebpo]

I mean real estate is already down. So it's a better time to buy now than it was earlier in 2020 or probably 2019.
But assuming things keep going down it'll be a better time in the future.


There's two competing situations going into early 2021.

1. Nothing is selling because everyone is scared to leave their house and be out looking. This is bringing prices down. Next year if there's a vaccine and things become safe to go out again, all these people that were thinking about buying will now be out looking at places and will drive the prices back up. Going by this situation, the best time to buy would be 2020.

2. The great economic super depression caused by Covid-19 will start to show it's ripple effect in a downturn of everything for the next few years. Because of this housing prices will keep dropping until we hit in the bottom in a few years and then things will go back up. In this situation the best time to buy would be in about 2-4 years.

Will probably be a combination of both of those to determine the market in 2021. If you're at the point you want to buy and you're not looking for a quick flip, it's a fine time to buy now if you can do it safely. Eventually the value should be more than it is currently in terms of your equity.

If you're just thinking about maaaayybe buying right now and could buy anytime in the next few years, or you're looking for a few year flip, it's probably safer to see where things start going in the first half of 2021. I was thinking about buying and was planning on buying summer 2020, but I'm not in a rush and I'll wait until early 2021 and see how things look myself.

Just wait for people to die and be a squatter and move from house to house as the 'rona numbers go up

More houses being on the market because people are dying and their kids are going to want to sell the house is a thing, but even if there's 500k deaths in the USA, if 1/5th of them own homes (as opposed to rent, which the majority of people do and I have no idea what the % of home owners vs renters are), you're still only looking at an additional 100k houses on the market across the USA which...isn't large enough to have a major effect.

[Crash Dummy]

in the uk i think they've waived stamp duty temporarily so tbh if i had money i'd probably get something for my parents, not interested in becoming a landlord and trying to find tenants and dealing with their shit

[Human Snorenado]

Yes in that the interest rates on mortgages is at an all time low

No in that the general price of housing is lagging in realizing that we're in the beginning of stages of a serious economic downturn (at least in the Atlanta area it is)

[Tasty]

E- Insensitive.

[Beezy]

People tend to only do rent costs vs. mortgage costs when this question comes up and conveniently leave out all the extra costs that can or will come with owning a home.

[Akala]

in US the direction and contents of the next stimulus is going to heavily influence the housing market in the near-term. it's still going to vary wildly by region and personally don't think it will be 3great2depressing level but also don't think we are at bottom yet.

30% of the US skipped rent last month, imagine rents in a lot of places may start to come down soon as well but wouldn't be surprised if there is little correlation to the house market. 

[EightBitNate]

I had this exact thread back in March. I’ve since bought the home I was looking at.

My advice: do it if you have job security. Lock in a low interest rate while it lasts. I got 3.125% for 30 years. Bad economy will come and go. Low interest rate is forever.

[VomKriege]

Total fake wisdom but if you have to ask the question, maybe it isn't.