Let’s not beat around the bush, you have likely clicked on this link because you are considering buying a home this year but you are not sure if current market conditions make 2023 a good year to buy a home. While the market conditions of 2023 are different than the conditions of the last three years, the short answer to the question is yes, it can still be a good time to buy a home. Let us at Garbett Homes walk you through why that is the case.
Why Do You Want to Buy a Home?
Whenever you start looking for a home, this is the first question that you should ask yourself. List out all the reasons why you want to buy a home, think hard about them, consider why you can only achieve them in a home that you own. Do you need more space? Do you want to live closer to where you work? Are you just ready for your forever home? These are only a few good reasons to buy a home and there are many more. If your reasons to buy a new home hold up under harsh scrutiny, then market conditions are irrelevant. Those reasons to own a home will still exist when there are high interest rates and low interest rates; if you are in the financial position to buy a home all you are losing is time.
You Are Not The Market and The Market is Not You
Contrary to what the past three years might have you thinking, not everyone is ready to buy a home at the same time. There are so many reasons that while the previous market was great for your friends and family it was bad for you. You could have been changing careers, or recovering from personal tragedies, or even simply just satisfied with where you lived during that time and now circumstances have changed. A bad market for your friends and family might be a good market for you. Your household’s unique needs and finances are the only things that should dictate when it is a good time to buy for you, not “The Market.”
Interest Rates are a Relative Neutral in Homebuying
The operative word in this section’s title is relative, before you sharpen your digital pitchforks, please take a deep breath, and read on. Like with most other markets, growth in the Real Estate market does not look like a straight line; instead, it looks like a rising roller coaster. There are peaks and valleys in the value of homes, land, and all the other factors that go into homebuying but generally it moves upwards. These peaks and valleys also apply to interest rates, meaning there will be times where interest rates are low again. Once you own a home that you intend to live in for an extended period of time, there will be opportunities to re-finance to a lower interest rate if you practice good fiscal discipline and stay on top of regular home maintenance.
Homeownership is a Long-Term Game
Let’s build on the thought from the previous section, your answers to the question “why do you want to buy a home” are likely to have something in common. They are all dreams for your life that happen over a timespan of years. Buying a home for yourself or your household shouldn’t be a decision thinking about your future in one year; at minimum it should be a decision made considering your future in five years. Five years is a long time to think about, and so much could change. Do you want to experience those changes renting and having to move from home to home each year? Do you want to be in a home that does not meet your current and future needs? Or do you want the stability, security, and comfort that only owning a home can offer?
Make no mistake, we at Garbett Homes are aware that today’s homebuying market is different than the one from the previous three years. We also know that the current market is not what the market will be like forever. Again, if you opened this article, you did so for a reason. Homeownership is something that you aspire to have in your near future. The fact that you read this far says admirable things about how you approach major purchases such as buying a home. To you, the prepared researcher, we say yes, 2023 is a good year to buy a home. The long-term benefits of obtaining the American dream will outweigh short-term concerns. If this article has described your circumstances, please reach out to our new home specialist, and start your homebuying journey today.