For home buyers who are looking for a chance to buy low, they may not want to drag their feet too much longer.
“Home prices have probably bottomed in most markets,” David Crowe,
chief economist at the National Association of Home Builders, said in an
NBC News-hosted Web chat with online visitors last week. “Mortgage
rates are not likely to go down much further and will eventually rise as
the economy recovers. Home builders are hungry and while you will still
have to pay a fair price, you may not get a better bargain than now
before all the rest of the demand comes back.”...
Crowe says one hurdle that may slow the recovery is the inability for
some home buyers to still not be able to qualify for financing due to
banks’ tightened underwriting conditions in the last few years.
But in places where the inventory of distressed homes is decreasing
and demand is growing because of an improving employment picture,
“housing is beginning to see some recovery, prices are picking up, and
more building is occurring,” Crowe says.
Source: “Housing Economist: Good Time to Get a Bargain,” NBC News (Aug. 17, 2012)