“This is the type of Real Estate market that two years from now everybody is going to say, ‘I wish I had bought then’.”  This is a quote from Rich Levin, noted real estate prognosticator.  Here are the factors, according to Levin, that are lining up for the next 6 to 12 months to be that year — you should have bought.  And the beauty here is, if you listen, you can still do it to minimize your housing costs and maximize the house you buy!

First, Financing:  Interest rates are still the lowest they’ve been for decades.  And, traditionally, when they hover close to 6%, they usually don’t “hover” for long, quickly rising with the demand for housing.  You have an opportunity to take advantage of these lower rates before the economy turns the corner and rates start rising with the healthier economy. 

“But I hear getting a loan is almost impossible,” some potential buyers repeat.  As St. Louis’s # 1 Realtor for many years, I can tell you that we have not seen difficulties in obtaining loans for the vast majority of our clients.  Lenders are eager to loan money (actually that is how banks make money!) to real estate buyers as long as they have good credit.  And we can still get low down payment loans, just not those 100% loans that caused the real estate melt down.

Inventory:  We note that new home inventory is slowly being absorbed into the marketplace, at prices that are definitely attractive to buyers who want to make money in the future.  Builders don’t know how to be grocery clerks or truck drivers, so they keep doing what they do know how to do: build houses.  That is one of the reasons we in St. Louis, St. Charles county and Jefferson county got into such an oversupply of available housing.  If you don’t have enough new buyers coming into the marketplace to absorb that inventory quickly enough, the inventory will build — and builders will have to run a “sale.”  And, because those builders are reluctant to add to the inventory until they get rid of their already existing “spec” homes, that inventory should shrink and has been shrinking nicely.

What that leaves on the market is pre-owned homes that have not sold through the  year. And now you, as a buyer, can take advantage of a wide array of homes that are available at very attractive prices in nearly every corner of the St. Louis market — St Charles county, West County, South County, Jefferson County, North County. 

And those who do decide to jump in now, before the spring, will not see prices this reasonable (read “cheap”) for many many decades.  It is like being offered a Mercedes at Yugo prices!  Once you buy that “Mercedes at that Yugo price,” you can sit back and chuckle as others finally decide to dip their toes in the market and find less inventory, higher prices, higher interest rates — and that ol’ Mercedes at Mercedes prices!!  This is so similar to people who look at the stock market when Walmart, for instance, is at its peak and decide it is a good buy.  They buy it at the peak and then see it drop to lower levels.  The old adage, “Buy low, sell high” applies here to housing as well.

Is it smart to buy now?  It doesn’t take an Einstein to take advantage of this once in a lifetime housing sale!

If you want to start browsing and dreaming, just call us at 636-391-2100 or visit our website and get started — before the rest of St. Louis wakes up and gives you competition!!

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