Maybe it was easier to make the decision to buy a home in Markham when prices were setting new records every month. Anyone thinking about buying a home now can’t be blamed. For wondering whether they should buy or wait to see if prices get any better.
The First Reason Why Now Could be the Best Time to Buy a Home in Markham
If you’re waiting to see if prices change before buying a house, you’re trying to time the market. No one knows what will happen to home prices tomorrow, next week, next month or next year. But, if history is any indication, timing the market has as much chance of costing you money as it does of saving you money.
If you need to buy a new home, but you’re putting your life on hold waiting for better house prices, it might not be worth the wait.
Why Some Buyers Should Buy Now
As we’ve said so often, Markham is blessed with a wide variety of housing, from condominium apartments to large, fully detached homes. If you live here and want to move up to a larger home, you have lots of options.
Here’s why you should consider those options sooner than later.
Let’s say your current home is worth $750,000 and you’re concerned about selling because you’ve heard about falling house prices.
You would like to move up to a $1,000,000 home.
Even if your concern is reflected in the market, and you decide to sell, you might end up reducing the price by 10% for a faster sale. That sounds like a ‘loss’ of $75,000
But, if the market conditions forced you to lower your price, then so too will the price be lowered by 10% on the house you want to buy. That’s a savings of $100,000.
Your home may have sold for $75,000 less, but, under the same market environment, you can buy the home you want for $100,000 less. So you really come out ahead.
What happens if the Market Turns Around Tomorrow
You might look at that scenario and wonder if we don’t know what will happen to house prices even tomorrow. What if prices begin to rise like they did early last year?
The opposite can happen to the difference between the selling price of your house. And the buying price of the home you move to.
Let’s say your $750,000 home sells for 10% more, or an increase of $75,000
Under hose market conditions, the $1,000,000 house you want will cost you $1,100,000, or $100,000 more.
You will be behind by $25,000 on the price differences
But that still means that buying now is your best option because house prices generally don’t ‘turn on a dime’. If they start to get better, then the sooner you sell and buy your new home. The differences in the price increases won’t be as large.
These are just example scenarios to illustrate a point. If you want to buy a home in Markham. It can be a mistake to listen to the news and worry about if it’s absolutely the best time to do so.
There are pluses and minuses to buying a home in any market. Your best option is to become as well informed about what’s happening to house prices in your neighbourhood. As well as the neighbourhood you want to move into.
Finding a real estate agent with a long history of buying and selling homes in the areas you’re interested in can be invaluable for making the right decisions.
Whether you’re buying or selling a home in Markham, Unionville, Richmond Hill or Stouffville, contact The Tar Team today