Is Now A Good Time To Buy A Home? – Forbes
I teach a class once a month about how to buy an apartment in NYC and in nearly every session, I get a question on whether it’s a good time to buy a home.
So…is it?
You’re Asking The Wrong Question
The truth is, neither your real estate agent nor anyone else can tell you whether now is the best time to buy a house so you can make a hefty profit in short order. If they could and were so confident in their predictions, they certainly wouldn’t be giving you advice. Instead, they’d be acting on their own knowledge to become incredibly wealthy.
Kathy Braddock, a managing director at real estate brokerage William Raveis New York City, says, “The reality is, no one has a crystal ball. We only know what the right time was to buy or sell by looking at history, hindsight being 20/20.”
What Are The Right Questions?
When people ask me this question, I don’t think they’re asking whether now is a good time to buy so they can sell in a year and make a huge profit.
I think what they’re really asking is, does it make sense for me, in my current situation, to buy a home. That’s a tougher question to answer broadly because everyone’s specific situation is different and can vary based on a variety of factors, but let’s try to break it down.