We are a family that is sick of renting and would really like to buy a home but want to make a wise decision. One of the main reasons that renting is frustrating is we have a disabled child and there are few rentals in the best school area, and I would really like long term home I can customise for my child's special needs.
I live in southern utah, which the market went out of control in Jan 2005. The market is currently packed with short sales and is starting to get a steady share of foreclosures. The area with the best schools has the fewest foreclosures and is holding its value better then most areas.
I have followed a home for 7 months, through short sale, and foreclosure and now have an offer that has been accepted. It is 3300 sq ft, in very good condition, large lot for the area, best schools and I have gotten the house for 250k. The home had sold for 385k in 2006 and had approx 20k in upgrades done from 2006-2008.
My gut tells me with the extreme low wages of southern utah the maket has to fall further. Pre 2005 , you could buy a home for cash, plenty of homes were under 100k. Now there are a handfull in the upper 100's , in 2006 there was virtauly nothing under 250k.
Since I plan on being in the house for at least 10 years and it would really help our family stress level to be able to get a house set up better for our child, is it a wise decision to buy now?
Additional Details
We are very qualifed buyers, good down payment , credit, stable secure jobs so I can afford the home. I could actually afford more but with rising healthcare premiums, I do not want a large home payment.
I have been renting for a year and I spend 3 hours a day driving my kids to a from school since there are no rentals in the only good school area. My disabled child is frustrated since we can't make major changes to this rental.
Foreclosures in southern utah are very controlled (forget getting anything at auction) by a select group of realtors. It was very hard to even get an offer in (most sell before going to mls to friends).
My consideration is I could never build this house for 250k. There are no lots in area to build. the closest lots to build are 135k+, so I could not build 3300 custom sq ft for 115k. Yes lots could fall but most of southern utah is blm land so lots will always hold some value.