I agree with all of this. The summer of 2010 (after the tax credits expired) until the spring of 2012 (and maybe later, if using all cash) was a great time to buy both investment RE and a residence in SD County.
I’m looking forward to Rich’s upcoming graphs, as well.[/quote]
Actually I think the best time to buy was in the Spring of 2009 with the $8000 tax cedit, as I was fortunate enough to do.[/quote]
Hmm.. I’m not so sure about that. I don’t know how things were like here in San Diego back then. But prices sure fell quite a bit after the tax credit expired in other areas. For example, I remember making an offer on a house in Plano, Texas back then before it expired. On a big 5 bedroom house in a nice area in a good school district they were asking $339,000.
I offered $300,000 cash. They felt offended and said no way. I remember at the time explaining to them that once the home housing tax credit program expired, prices were going to plummet. And they did at least there.
A few months had gone by and I forgot about the house. I remember getting an email from my realtor and he emailed me asking me if I was still interested as now the seller’s realtor was interested in my $300,000 offer. I had already purchased another property so I said no.
Well the house ended up going for something like $289,000 several months later. Waiting for the credit to expire in that neck of the woods was a much smarter move vs. paying $8,000 “less” before it expired.
Sometimes less is not more. :)[/quote]
The tax credit definitely boosted prices in SD County, too, even for listings above $500K. We have friends who insisted that the tax credits were a good deal, and they’ve had some significant losses as a result.
Anytime a credit or subsidy of any type (including artificially low interest rates) are available to the majority of buyers, it’s the sellers who will end up with the benefit, not the buyers. In order for buyers to benefit, it has to be a very limited/restricted subsidy.
