When To Buy in a Buyer’s Market

In a buyers’ market, sales are obviously slower than in a sellers’ market. What constitutes a buyers’ market, after all? An abundance or over-abundance of homes on the market for sale.

In a buyers’ market, sales are obviously slower than in a sellers’ market. What constitutes a buyers’ market, after all? An abundance or over-abundance of homes on the market for sale. With so many homes available for sale, and fewer potential buyers of those homes, sales slow, price appreciation slows or even turns negative, and the newspapers are full of stories about what a dreadful real estate market we’re experiencing. In a sellers’ market, there are far more ready and able buyers than there are homes for sale, and homes sell quickly.

What is particularly remarkable is the amount of expert advice thrown at us in a buyers’ market. Somehow, as prices ease and it becomes possible to negotiate terrific terms with those who are anxious to sell their homes, the market gurus decide it’s not a good time to buy. Wait a year, they often say. Avoid the carnage.

Trouble is—as a very rich man named Bernard Baruch often observed—the very best time to buy is precisely when no one else is buying. The reasons should be obvious, but they are compelling only for the wisest among us.

If it’s harder to sell a home and you’ll get a lower price in the sale, but it’s easier to buy a home and you’ll get a lower price in the purchase, things not only even out—you can often end up ahead in your sale and purchase in a buyers’ market. Why the negativity, then? Because people start to believe that prices will just keep falling (probably the same people who, in a sellers’ market, believe prices will just keep rising).

The bottom line: When you need to move, and you find the right house, let market conditions be a secondary consideration. The right time to buy is when you find the right house at the right price with the right terms. Simple, but true. For more information call Beth at 425-450-5208 and visit her website at www.bethbillington.com.