[quote author="stepping_up" date=1219360124]As the wife approaching 40 who wanted a house married to a man who doesn't pay much attention to the real estate market and was on board with buying this year, I suggest waiting. We closed escrow in May and at the time it seemed like a really great deal, but there is a big part of me that wishes we had waited because prices are still dropping quite rapidly. We were able to get a 5.875 fixed back then, so when I weigh that vs the higher rate today, the payment is pretty much a wash with the lower purchase price.
On the one hand, we both really enjoy having our own house with a yard. On the other, we would have preferred a better location. If it was a matter of having to move into another rental at market vs buying this house, we would have definitely opted for the latter, even knowing what we know now. What gives me buyers remorse is that we gave up a steal of a deal on our rental. Even though buying this house is essentially at rental parity when you factor in the tax break, it's only so when you consider market value rents.
Initially I was really discouraged with the continued decline in prices, but as time goes on I think less and less about what the market value is today, meaning I've gone from obsessing over it to something I still think about daily . I think that's mostly because I've had to resign myself to accept that it may very well decline an additional 10%-20% from what we paid. I'm not sure if this stems from the natural tendency of owners to deny the worst, but I believe it's more likely to be an 11% drop than a 20% drop. I have a really hard time believing the uber bears predictions, but I also laugh at the bottom callers.
However, I haven't seen anything else come on the market here that I felt was a better value and wished we bought instead. Actually, there have been one or two, but they got snapped up so fast that we wouldn't have been able to buy them. There was one that appeared to be sooo much better for sooo much less that I was agonizing for two days over it, but when I went to look at it, thankfully it turned out to be a total POS. The day I do see something come on the market that is clearly a significantly greater value in our range, I know it will bother me quite a bit. I should just stop watching the market, but I can't help myself.
It sounds as though you've found your compromise, so my knife catching blather isn't much of a help. Your mutual resignation on the decision will take care of the inner debate of "do we or don't we."</blockquote>
Thank you for sharing your experience. I bought my home in October 06 knowing that the market will continue to decline anyway. Mrs BK and I bought the home because we love our home and there is not another one like it in OC. We paid $515 /sf for our place and watched the comp gone down since our purchase. Since our home is not a part of a cookie cutter development so the only comp comparison is based on similar footages. We never really regret our decision because we bought a home we really adore and enjoy living there. Being extremely picky about everything I was lucky just being able to find a home that I actually like and the extra money we spent was worth it to secure a rare find.
