Is Now A Good Time to Buy or Sell Residential Real Estate?

The other day, I was at the post office standing in line and I was talking to a gentleman who lived in Seattle. He is a snowbird, and he comes to our city, Palm desert California to reside in the winter months where the average ambient temperature is 70-degrees F for about 7 to 8 months per year. It only rains eight days on average during the fall, winter, and spring seasons. He was glad to be here, and he had bought a new home in the area, actually a manufactured home in a nice gated community with a golf course surrounding it.

He said he got a deal that was so good he couldn't pass it up, he couldn't say no, and he bought it sight unseen actually, well, he looked at the videos and pictures on the Internet. He told me that he felt like it was a good time for him to buy because he expected the real estate in this area to pick up. He noted to me that although the prices in Seattle had fallen some 40% after the 2008 crash, right now they were picking up in about 3% per month. That's a good thing and that means the real estate, at least the residential real estate in his area in a suburb city of Seattle was doing well.

So, is this a good time to buy or sell residential real estate? Actually it might be depending on where you live, most areas are starting to recover if they haven't already. So you ask; should I go for it? Well, I'd say that this might be a good time to sell a home or buy one. We seem to be in a little real estate uptick, low interest rates, and still climbing back up from the bottom. Too, things could change after the election economic wise, perhaps after January 1, 2013 as we might have a problem due to major budget cuts.

Not long ago, I was discussing this with a friend from Colorado, living in the Colorado Springs area. Indeed, this could be a problem due to the military cuts proposed by a sequestration maneuver with the Federal Fiscal Budget Cliff. That could cause a job losses and many of the defense contractor supporting companies could be laying off as well, which wouldn't be so good for the area. Of course, with another round of BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) some military bases could expand while others might be closed down. Therefore, it might be okay in that area, and others might get hit worse.

It's never easy buying real estate, and it's almost impossible to be right every time, but it is important to yourself and your family, not to mention your financial future that you don't make major mistakes. So if you're going to make a move, make it the right one, do your homework, and think about some of what I've said here today. Please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank.

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