The answer is always going to be, “It depends.”
Right now can be a great time to buy a home for a variety of reasons, but certain things can give you pause as well. We’ll break down all of the reasons why you may or may not want to buy right now.
The Calgary real estate market is technically a buyers’ market because there’s plenty of homes available, but it’s also fairly balanced. Homes only stay on the market for around 47 days, and there’s been a slight increase in some year-over-year home values, which is good news for sellers.
What does this mean for you? It means that it’s an excellent time to buy. You should have plenty of options available to you whether you’re looking at resale homes or brand-new homes. There are also likely to be a fair number of quick possession homes from builders. These are brand-new homes that have been built already. You get all the benefits of a new home without waiting a long time, and you still get to pick out some details.
With new home prices potentially on the rise, now is a good time to buy because you can lock in at the low price.
When you’re buying a brand-new home, winter tends to be a pretty good time to buy. Like the traditional real estate market, a lot of people try to purchase their homes in the spring and early summer.
If you start touring show homes now, you’ll be beating the crowds. The homes you’re looking at might be empty, and you’ll be able to spend a lot of time talking to the Area Manager and getting them to answer any questions you might have.
Additionally, home builders tend to offer some good deals during the winter months. You can get a lot of extras - worth tens of thousands of dollars - when you buy your new home in the winter. This is a big deal because you can’t haggle the price of a new home the way that you can with resale homes.
The other big thing you need to think about is your financial situation. A hot market might be telling you that now is a good time to buy, but if your financial situation isn’t looking good, it might be better to wait.
For instance, let’s say that you only have a 5 percent down payment for your home, and the mortgage lender tells you that you can afford a $2,500 monthly mortgage payment. If you take a look at your budget and see that $2,500 might be a stretch, you shouldn’t borrow that much.
One option would be to look for homes that will only cost you $2,200 a month for the mortgage. The other possibility is to keep saving up for a larger down payment. With a bigger down payment, you’ll pay less monthly.
What type of home are you looking to buy? Some people are looking for a starter home. Some are looking to move up into a larger home to accommodate their growing family. Some are looking to downsize after the kids have moved out.
As you think about buying your new home, consider whether you’re making a purchase that’s going to last your family for a long time. In general, you usually need to live in a home for at least five years if you want to avoid losing money on the sale of the home.
If you don’t think that you’ll stay in this home for at least five years, you should pass on it until something better comes along. This might mean that you spend another year saving up for a down payment on the home of your dreams, or it might mean that you move a bit further outside of the city to get that big backyard you’ve been dreaming about. It’s hard to wait, but you’ll be happier in the long run.
There’s no single perfect time to buy a home, but if you think carefully about your needs, the market, and your finances, you have a better shot at purchasing your home at the right time. Get in touch with us to tour some of Prominent’s show homes, and you’ll start to get a good sense of what you can get. From there, you can make a plan to buy your new home.