When's The Best Time to Buy a House?

If you're wondering when you should buy a house, here are a few things to keep in mind-- particularly as a first time buyer.

It's never the wrong time to buy the right house, and it's never the right time to buy the wrong house.

Read that again. "Right" and "wrong" are of course personal and subjective, but your agent should help guide you in seeing how your decisions might pan out in the short and long term. 

Trying to "time the market," or in other words, trying to shove yourself into a deal because you believe the timing to be right, rarely works out well.

I have a tendency to equate real estate journeys with romantic endeavors. Pick up lines rarely work (at least not in the long term) because the right person can't say the wrong thing, and the wrong person can't say the right thing. Your house, just like your partner, may not be what everyone else wants or what anyone else expects of you, and that's ok!

The other piece of evergreen advice for aspiring homeowners is this:

Getting your foot in the door of the market is the hardest part. Buy what you can afford, when you can afford it, where you can afford it. Largely gone are the days of buying one house in your early 20s for the price of a few magic beans and pocket lint and living there until you cross that rainbow bridge. Most often, especially in desirable markets, your Dream Home/Forever Home (whatever you want to call it) is probably a few rungs up the ladder of ownership. 

But what about interest rates? What about the bubble bursting or the market crashing? 

Well, instead of chasing a particular rate, work backwards. Ask yourself what kind of monthly payment you're comfortable with, and use that number to decide what you can afford. The thing we feel is what we pay monthly, not what our interest rate is--and the good news is that whatever rate you lock in with a conventional loan will never go up, but you may be able to refinance down.

In a market like Los Angeles, the challenges are often inventory and competition, so if a lot of people are waiting for a rate drop to get into the market...that means an influx of buyers at the same time, which means increased competition (which leads to an increase in sales price.) 

Savvy buyers know where opportunity lies- opportunity lies in pockets of uncertainty, open-mindedness, and bravery--especially when you have a savvy agent by your side to help you navigate it all.