My advice is to do whatever makes you feel comfortable. It’s not like you ever even have to buy a house if you don’t want to. There’s nothing wrong with being a life-long renter. You’ll certainly have more flexibility that way.
Scarlet makes a good point about supply being kept artificially limited. Banks certainly appear to be hoarding supply in order to keep prices up. Also, I think the advice to be wary of RE cheerleaders who have recently bought is good.
Another poster above mentioned that interest rates are unlikely to be this low in the future. That’s probably true as I just read an article that said the government (Fannie, Freddie, FHA, etc) is 87% of the mortgage market now. So not only do you have artificially limited supply, you also have the government artificially inducing demand through below-market interest rates, below-market down payments, and below-market underwriting standards.
In summary, listen to what everyone has to say, but make your own decisions. Don’t let anyone push you, scare you, or cajole you into buying. Whatever you decide, it will only be you who will have to live with it.
Here’s an excerpt from that article I mentioned above:
The principal actors in the market today are the nationalized housing-finance companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which purchase mortgage loans. In third place stands the Federal Housing Administration, which insures loans originated by private lenders. All together, the government sector accounts for 87 percent of the mortgages currently being made, says Guy Cecala, chief executive and publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance Publications in Bethesda. Purely private financing is expensive and scarce.
Could you imagine if the government pulled out of the mortgage market completely? Housing prices would probably collapse another 50%. This is unlikely to happen, but anyone who thinks they are buying into a fair, unmanipulated market is fooling themselves.
