Buying a home today means buying a home at a price unimaginable a few months ago.  Especially for California renters, the state of the current market means an opportunity to put that rent money into a long-term home investment. The RealFacts research firm released a report studying rent prices in California during the housing slump and found that as home prices continue to go down, rents are steadily increasing.  Especially in Los Angeles and Orange County, where apartments are consistently in demand, owners are capitalizing on the housing scare and hiking up the rents for a family who might not be able to quite yet afford the mortgage on a house, but can endure the rent-rate hike.

To attract renters’ attentions and turn them into homeowners, housing developers have been using creative ways to make it more financially realistic for them.  For example, the Santee Village loft condos in downtown Los Angeles offered renters a special loan package in partnership with Countrywide Home Loans.  Potential buyers who could scrape up the ten percent down payment for a loft home would be allowed to make mortgage payments of approximately $1,200 a month thereafter, an amount less than $1,413, the average rent in Californian apartment complexes as stated in the RealFacts study.

Many home sellers are also taking on the closing costs of a sale, and some are even going so far as to finance a part of the mortgage for buyers who cannot find one hundred percent financing in the stricter mortgage market.  “Whatever the renter’s situation,” says Kevin Moen, a Realtor® in Palo Alto, “know that it is currently a buyer’s market, and no deal or arrangement is out of the realm of possibility.” 

In fact, real estate experts from all over the country have been commenting on the positions signs of the market.  Donald Trump, on a segment on CNBC, declared that “It’s the best time (to get into real estate).  You can make great deals today that you couldn’t make a year ago or two years ago.”  And indeed, not only first-time buyers, but current homeowners can take advantage of lower costs and lower interest rates to buy or trade into a more expensive home.  As Pat Combs, the president of the National Association of Realtors, reminded people, “…supply and demand can change from one neighborhood to the next, … but housing is still a good long-term investment.”  And in terms of investment, who can ask for a better time to buy than now?  Inventory is growing, prices are decreasing, and sellers are willing to go the extra mile for buyers.

But for those who are wavering or waiting until the market hits bottom to make a home purchase, it’s important to remember that homes should be a lifestyle choice first and an investment choice second.  If a buyer sees a dream home for sale, they shouldn’t let it go based on the calculation that it might be cheaper in six months, says one realtor in Brentwood.  Interest rates may go up again, the housing slump may be healing itself, and the home might not even be on the market anymore.  So yes, housing gains are wonderful, but don’t fret, homebuyers in it for the long-term will see them again.

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