Cornflakes
Active member
Also, please illuminate us for your thinking behind your forecast.
With one major exception, sometime market forces could cause you to have to relocate and at those times, it is important what the prices of real estate are. I agree with you on affordability and everything and theoretically it would be hard to imagine a scenario where long-term prices go down (cause of inflation...etc...of course if we got to a deflationary state, oh shit is all I can say). Either way, at this point, just buy what you can afford when you can afford it if you are thinking long-term (clearly it is the path I should have taken a year to a year and a half ago when I casually started shopping for a new home, thinking I could be patient and had the benefit of time given where markets were). Thank the lord I have a current place...unfortunately while it has appreciated (and I bought it at a low), it certainly didn't appreciate over past 1.5 years like TIC has jacked up its prices. Oh well, what the hell do I know.Perspective said:A house you buy to reside in, isn't an investment. So it doesn't matter much. You might know what your profit/loss is when you sell in the distant future; but that's only true if you carefully document everything you spend to upgrade and maintain your house over your ownership period.
And even then, all you have is an accurate figure. Once you sell it, you'll likely buy another house in the same general area. So its value will either have increased or decreased similarly affecting the price you pay for it.
In other words, there's no need to fret house prices. They are what they are, and will go where they'll go.
acf said:so in general, if everyone thinks the prices of Irvine are going to go up, why complain about the current Eastwood home prices. they will be a veritable bargain in the coming years!!
wishing it were cheaper is one thing, but if they are going to continue to go up, bite the damn bullet no?
paperboyNC said:Think they will go up at about the same rate as inflation.
1) interest rates will not go up much. I said all along that the Fed changes in short term rates will have basically no effect on long term rates and so far I'm right.
2) there is not enough land or construction in OC. The register has run numerous articles about how household formation exceed housing construction. Irvine is the only city building much and it will run out if land soon.
3) traffic from outside of Irvine to the job centers here is getting worse, especially from more affordable cities like Anaheim and Corona.
4) unemployment continues to decrease.
It's not as hard to come up with a down payment as you think. Many buyers got stock options or family money. You can also buy with 3-5% down.
I wouldn't discount an FHA if you can afford to pay the monthly (even with the PMI).eyephone said:I'm not a big fan of FHA loans (3-5% down) The PMI extra payment is a killer. It's like an additional Hoa monthly payment.