Wednesday, March 09, 2011

Should I buy my larger home this year or wait??

The question that a client just asked me was "Dear Mark, Should I buy my larger home this year or wait??"

My answer was:

Hi C,

Thank you for your real estate email inquiry. This is not an easy question to answer. Nobody knows 100% but if the past 16 years are any indication and if the last 2 months are any indication, then you should be trading up now rather than waiting.

The real estate companies have almost all increased their predictions on price increases for this year. Initially many were saying that they expect a 2 to 4% increase in prices, now it's more like 4 to 7% and even higher.

Prices are currently escalating.

When the market prices increase the larger homes always increase more. For example, if you currently live in a $300,000 townhouse and prices increase from March 1 to June 1 by 5% then the townhouse will increase by about $15,000. But, a home that is currently $400,000 will increase by at least $25,000 to maybe even $40,000 or more. This is always the case. The larger priced properties increase more.

I've been watching the market very closely since the last drop in the market prices, which was January of 2008. Since that time prices have only escalated each quarter and this is quite unnerving. If you read Garth Turner, he preaches doom and gloom all the time and the fact that the bubble is about to burst. I have followed Garth Turner since I got in the business in 1987 and he was often right back in the late 80's and early 90's but since 1995 prices have only gone up every year, year after year. See here:
http://www.mississauga4sale.com/TREBavg1995date.htm

Again, nobody can know for certain what will happen in the future, but it appears prices in the GTA will continue their steady upward slope for the foreseeable future.

If prices only increase 4% per year, the average will be well over $638,000 in a few short years! See the graph here:

http://www.mississauga4sale.com/TREBprice.htm#prediction

When you trade up it's better to buy first and then sell, but this is a tough decision and requires much thought, read more about this here:

http://www.mississauga4sale.com/sell-first-or-buy-first.htm

Please let me know if you have any other questions or if there is anything else I can help you with.

Thank you again for contacting me and I will do my best to help you with your real estate needs,

Mark

A. Mark Argentino
P. Eng. Broker
Specializing in Residential & Investment Real Estate

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