HousingPanic, one of those bubble blogs, is poking fun at the National Association of Homebuilders’ advice to, essentially, buy a house now, please.
Who can blame the National Association of Homebuilders for their “BUY NOW” campaign? After all, there is quite a bit of new inventory on the market that many builders fear they will get stuck holding. I happen to agree with two, and only two of their points… trading up in a declining market can absolutely make sense, and timing any market is damn near impossible.
But there are a thousand holes in the rest of the theories from the NAHB, and it seems a little desperate, especially as I can’t believe anyone would find the message convincing. In this age of savvy buyers and sellers and the increasing amount of information available to both, I believe that these campaigns (by “these” I’m including the recent NAR ads too) are probably not swaying a lot of consumers.
People who have to or want to move for some reasons will do so. It’s no secret that the market is almost never balanced and always favors either the seller or the buyer at any given time.
There is frustration in this moment, because it is difficult to weed through the numbers and make sense of the numerous housing markets across the country. Again, each is its own market and comparing Miami housing to that in New York City is nuts. For that matter, there are markets within markets. For example, the one bedroom market in NYC favors the buyer in my opinion with increasing inventory and more room for negotiations while the four bedroom market (below $4M) remains tight and sellers are still procuring multiple bidders on properties that are priced well.
How to read all those tea leaves? Very carefully, and with great expertise. Not with yet another big, bold claim that, essentially, it’s always a good time to buy.
