The housing bust is creating a new group of winners: first-time home buyers. People who sat on the sidelines -- often watching wistfully as their friends became homeowners -- are suddenly in a position to grab some great deals.
--Mary Pilon, "For Some, It's Finally Time to Dive Into Housing Market"; The Wall Street Journal (2/11/09)
Check out this survey piece in the Journal profiling recent, first-time home Buyers in Phoenix, Seattle, and Connecticut. According to the article, the various incentives now accumulating for first-time Buyers may help blunt their fears of falling prices.
It's also the case that the housing downturn has created a new *mantra amongst would-be home Buyers.
Just like a rising stock market taught a previous generation of investors to "buy the dips," falling housing prices have persuaded many prospective Buyers that "waiting pays off."
*The best mantra? Don't do what everyone else is doing -- and never do anything reflexively.
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1 comment:
Very true. As a first time buyer myself I can finally get my foot on the first step of the property ladder, something that was impossible during the bubble of a few years ago, when most of the action in real estate was driven by 'investors' rather than genuine home-buyers (oil industry take note). The so-called great deals everyone is screaming about are really only decent properties at rational prices. This will be good for both lenders and the housing industry in the long term since homes are finally being bought by people who can really afford them, and who are far less likely to go into foreclosure 2 years down the road.
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