First-Time Homebuyer’s can pick a cherry now or accept a lemon later!

It is the Surf City Guru’s opinion that Orange County’s first-time homebuyers would be better off buying now rather than continuing to wait for prices to hit rock bottom. Due to the sub-prime lender problems, Federal home loan guidelines and requirements will most likely become much stricter. Mortgage interest rates were recently lowered by about ½ point. The Fed wants to raise them back up, due to their strong desire to curb inflation. Current market conditions have created some wonderful buying opportunities, especially for negotiating better prices, terms and conditions. Since Orange County communities have extremely high demand, current market conditions can shift quickly from a buyer’s market to a seller’s market almost overnight. Prices in highly desirable neighborhoods are already on the rise again. When the market does swing the other way, buyers will most likely flood the market, just like home sellers did when the market peaked and adjusted downward. The nicest homes and condos will naturally sale quickly, and fence sitters will quickly lose most of their negotiating abilities, opportunities and advantages. If buyers continue to wait, they will lose valuable homeownership time that cannot be recaptured; they will lose potential tax benefits for this year. For qualified first-time homebuyer’s, the time has come to stop sitting on the fence. Stop building equity for your landlord and start building some for yourself! There are still some great first-time homebuyer’s programs, including several that are offering 100+ percent financing with an interest only payment option. These are local, state and federal government sponsored programs. These are not sub-prime loans. If you would like to learn more about your current loan options, please let us know! For those with good paying jobs, low debt ratios and a good credit history, market conditions probably won’t get any better than right now!