Anyone with any cash in hand should be buying a house right now.
That’s what any real estate agent will tell you, obviously, but that’s also what many investors now believe.
Unfortunately, the potential home-buying public…isn’t buying it.
January’s consumer confidencereport found a drop in the number of Americans who plan to buy a home in the next six months. If, however, you take out the confidence issue, the fundamentals for buying are strong:
Home prices nationally are down 33 percent from their bubble peak, according to the latest S&P/Case-Shiller report, mortgage rates are hovering near record lows, and housing supply, while falling, is still historically high. In other words, it’s more of a buyer’s market than it’s ever been.