Thinking of buying a Metro Atlanta home? You may be better making the decision sooner rather than later!
If you qualify for a mortgage and choose not to buy now, you will be kicking yourself a year from now.
Thanks to very low inventory, Metro Atlanta home prices are projected to increase by 6.3 percent through April 2015, according to a recent study by Corelogic, a leading global property information, analytics, and data-enabled services provider.
Just how much could that increase cost you? More than you might think. On a $300,000 house today, the same house will cost you $318,000 a year from now.
4 Reasons Why Buying a Metro Atlanta Home Now is a Smart Move
#1 – Buying a Metro Atlanta home will only become more expensive because of low inventory and rising demand. With a shortage of housing and rental units available, Metro Atlanta housing prices and rents have increased, leading to affordability issues. The good news is that this supply and demand issue will solve itself once more housing units are built to accommodate the population growth and young families looking at buying a Metro Atlanta home. The bad news is that it could take a while, and prices will climb until then. So now might be a good time to buy, before prices peak.
#2 – Buying a Metro Atlanta home will certainly cost more, even if prices don't increase, because of the Fed planning to taper off bond-buying in October. The Fed is now buying $25 billion per month, down from $85 billion at the peak. The end of the program, which was aimed to keep interest rates low, is expected to result in higher interest rates, and any increase in interest rates could create even less favorable conditions for buyers.
Rising rates can have just as big an impact on affordability as does rising prices due to low housing inventory. When mortgage rates increase, borrowers experience greater difficulty qualifying when they are wanting to buy.
While you've already missed the bottom of the market with home prices, interest rates are still very low. Don't risk rates going up, which can ultimately cost you big on your home's price tag.
#3 – Buying a Metro Atlanta home will continue to become less affordable due to the current economy's flat wages. If home prices continue to increase, housing could in theory become less affordable if your take-home pay doesn't keep up with its growth. Can you afford to wait?
#4 – Buying a Metro Atlanta home now rather than later will have you beating others to the punch who procrastinate and wait til later to buy. The pent-up demand of younger professionals, who moved back in with their parents during the recession, is about to explode. And as these young people move out and form new households of their own, they will drive up housing demand.
While the competition helps the overall home values in the area, it also inflates prices to the point where buying Metro Atlanta homes is no longer affordable for a large percentage of potential home buyers. It's only expected to get worse as more and more young professionals feel ready to buy, so it's a smart move to buy now and avoid the potential price gouging altogether.
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