1st Time Homebuyers, Blog

Is this the “Golden Age” for First Time Homebuyers?

“Five or 10 years from now, when the financial crisis has ended and housing prices are up smartly once more, we will look in the rearview mirror and realize that we missed a golden age for first-time home buyers.” So says the New York Times.

Something tells me that a lot of potential homeowners aren’t thinking this way. Perhaps, instead, you feel that it would be completely nuts to be considering buying your own place, given the awful state of the economy? I feel your pain. In fact, I’ve been there myself: my husband and I bought our first home in 1996 at a time when things were not looking good at all. The market had never even started to recover in the six years since the crash that started in 1990. We certainly never bought the house thinking that we’d get any kind of decent appreciation out of it: we bought in order to have our own house, and, frankly, to save a bit on taxes. In retrospect, it has turned out to be the best investment of our lives.

Will you have a similar experience? Only time will tell, but the only way to experience the benefits of homeownership is to get into the game. Find a starter house that you can afford, and make the most out of the government programs designed for first time homebuyers.