The dream I'm speaking of is the one which commonly takes most of our money and discipline to realize. The dream of owning our own home may be harder to qualify for these days, but it's not impossible; and for some this could be the best time to get in the market. Generally speaking, prices are lower and the choices are great. So, if all of your credit ducks are in a row, it may be time to do your Internet search, make some calls, and plan to drive (considering the price of gas, a 'plan' is a good thing) through your desired area of town.
I live in the sprawling and constantly growing DFW area. I must admit that I was envious a few years ago when we all watched housing prices explode into the stratosphere in California, Arizona and Florida, to mention a few. We heard of the fortunate folks doubling, tripling or simply becoming millionaires selling their homes; buying another and making even more money. Television shows popped up, enticing our greed, telling us how we could buy, fix-up and flip. We did; and some of us made out like bandits.
It was like a bad flu season. It all started in the before mentioned areas and slowly spread to the center of the country. Lucky for those of us who live in this area, you could say we had been inoculated, because we never saw the prices explode. Yes, they went up and in some hotspots of the area, they went up a lot... upwards of 30%-50%.... that's it!
As they say in the financial markets, "high risk, yields high returns" and "low risk, yields low returns". I like to think of it as low risk/low stress. This is your home, not a piece of paper. We all hope to buy low and sell higher, and in most cases home ownership is still a great investment. A great investment which needs to be protected and possibly enhanced to make your home a great deal for the next buyer. We all have a dream.
Today is Earth Day, and next we'll talk about how we can make our homes more green.
I live in the sprawling and constantly growing DFW area. I must admit that I was envious a few years ago when we all watched housing prices explode into the stratosphere in California, Arizona and Florida, to mention a few. We heard of the fortunate folks doubling, tripling or simply becoming millionaires selling their homes; buying another and making even more money. Television shows popped up, enticing our greed, telling us how we could buy, fix-up and flip. We did; and some of us made out like bandits.
It was like a bad flu season. It all started in the before mentioned areas and slowly spread to the center of the country. Lucky for those of us who live in this area, you could say we had been inoculated, because we never saw the prices explode. Yes, they went up and in some hotspots of the area, they went up a lot... upwards of 30%-50%.... that's it!
As they say in the financial markets, "high risk, yields high returns" and "low risk, yields low returns". I like to think of it as low risk/low stress. This is your home, not a piece of paper. We all hope to buy low and sell higher, and in most cases home ownership is still a great investment. A great investment which needs to be protected and possibly enhanced to make your home a great deal for the next buyer. We all have a dream.
Today is Earth Day, and next we'll talk about how we can make our homes more green.
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