Dear buyorhold – I don’t know you but I would strongly counsel to try to get your deposit back or just eat it.

I am a business person – and I like to look at risk / reward calculations. If you said you planned on being in the house for 30 years (or 20), I still think you are rushing into this, but at 7-10 I think it is a huge mistake.

There is a reason that the builders are giving away kitchens, etc. – they need to. Getting the equivalent of a 5% bonus for buying at the top of a market is no bargain.

The chance that your neighborhood will go up in value is small, the chance that it could go down is huge. Look at the fundamentals and also look at history. This is EXACTLY what happens at the end of a bubble. The bubble deflates and people still buy on the way down. I don’t think that you need to wait forever – it’s really hard to time a real estate market. But prices are insane. Look at what those houses were selling for (or other comparable areas 7 years ago. Or 10 years ago. You are locking yourself and your future into an asset which will probably decrease and giving yourself little breathing room. If you don’t mind taking a 70K hit on paper minimum – do it. I don’t think you want to.

Another thing – that is quit a bit inland – it’s going to be hit (is getting hit) very hard right now. Wait 1 year – look at the market – you will be jumping for joy you didn’t plunge in. There is a reason all the other people did not finalize their sales. And a final note… The developers are not idiots. They are only putting a small fraction of what is being built on the market. They have already said that they will probably give back the last 3 years of profits over the next couple…. Don’t pay their way out of it with your money just for some upgrades which cost them small amounts…