Rent vs. Buy

[rent vs. buy]

First time homebuyer, cash in bank, A paper, looking to purchase $500,000 detached home in 92128 and current lease expires in May. Need to make a decision quickly. lender and real estate agent say now is the time to buy, CPA says to wait it out another year, Greenspan says recession is here. Should we rent in the area for another year, save more money and watch the market or bite the bullet and buy? I’m sorry if this is a duplicate to another post. thanks in advance for the info.

[kewp]

What’s the harm in waiting a year? Unless you are hell-bent on watching 100K or so in equity vanish in the next 12 months.

Relax, do some traveling, have a garage sale and get rid of the stuff you don’t need. 2007 is the year of reckoning.

P.S. Did you see what happened in the stock market today?

[gold_dredger_phd]

Of course the lender and real estate agent say, “Now’s the time to buy.” They’re looking for a quick commission and don’t care if you can stay in the house or you overpaid by $200K or whatever. They only care about their commissions.

Real estate cycles tend to be 15-20 years long. I’m waiting until at least 2009-2010.

[mixxalot]

I say wait at least a couple more years. My bet would be with your CPA advice.

I told the one zip realty broker to stop pestering me and that I would call her in a couple years after the market corrected.. if she is still in the business that is.

[(former)FormerSanDiegan]

My personal list of professions from which I would never take investment advice in order of increasing confidence …

1. Real Estate Agents
2. CPAs
3. Dentists
4. Professional Football Players
5. Lenders

[hipmatt]

I think you answered your own question when you said that the lender and RE agent told you to buy.
Seriously, I don’t care what you do, but buying is the single worst financial move one could make in so cal right now.

[Anonymous]

Go ahead, buy at the peak! I’m sure you will save a few thousand bucks off the list price, might even get a few hundred in repairs prior to close.

Be prepared to take a 30-60% loss over the next 3-5 years. Also, keep in mind, as your property loses value the bank might just colapse and/or call in your loan.

Sure, buy now…..sounds like a really good idea!

Biotech-Dude

[ibjames]

#3 should be doctors, dentists, etc 🙂

[rent vs. buy]

Thanks to everyone for their feedback regarding this matter.

[mixxalot]

Way better to rent now than buy

My case. I work in the technology field where layoffs and off shoring of millions of jobs to India and China has been in full force. No job stability. My rent is 1100 a month and it would cost me 3-5k a month for same size place if I bought today. Not worth it because it will drop like a rock. If I was making 500k a year sure but still would be foolish to throw money away.

[(former)FormerSanDiegan]

ibjames –

I agree: doctors, dentists and orthodontists are all in category #3.

This reminds me of something my dentist told me in 1996. He said that he was pondering selling his Mission Hills home, live on a boat for 5 years, then come back and buy his house for cash with the money he saved.

[Author]

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