Housing Hype & the Savvy Shopper

The Case for Buying Today

“Mr. White, we still don’t have a story for the front page and press time is here!”

“Great Caesar’s ghost Jimmy don’t bother me with that now! Just put in another story about Britney or the housing crisis. They always fall for that, ha ha.”

“No problem Chief, I’ll grab some stats & graphs to work up more panic in the real estate market!”

Dear Reader, do you feel that there’s a lot of hype over housing? Statistics strewn salaciously; prognosticators pontificating? Well, breathe easily, you won’t get more of that here. We talk about specifics for our community that you won’t find on every major newspaper and newsmag.

The fact is that not every property is suffering declining prices. Others have already reached their particular bottom and will be sold at today’s price. If you want a new home, you can find it today and never worry about declining prices.

Hey, I’m not guaranteeing that the price evaluation won’t fall, I’m assuring you that you won’t worry. Why? Because you will be making a long term investment and you will know that ultimately your home’s value will increase.

How do I know this? It’s simple arithmetic. There are 6.6 billion people on the planet and there are (trust me) 0.7 billion square miles of desirable property- almost all of it occupied. Soon there will be 9 billion people. And how many square miles of property do you think there will be? Still only 0.7 billion, if that after global warming and additional pollution. Here in suburban San Diego the population pressure will be even more intense. More people, less land–the land becomes more valuable. Simple arithmetic. If there’s a house on it, so much the better.

If you buy an elderly house on a large lot in El Cajon, La Mesa or Lemon Grove; you’re going to get a great price right now, today. Your Redfin refund is icing on the cake. If it drops another 8% over the next year does that matter to you? Only if you try to sell it then. But if you intend to stay you’ll see a huge value increase over the next 20 years. You’ll have opportunities to put maybe 6 rental units on that property and retire comfortably. What had been a tired old community will be thriving and you’ll be laughing all the way to the bank.

I see two indicators that say you should buy right now. (1) you need a house, (2) you plan to stay. The only question is which house to buy.

These elderly homes are on lots greater than 1/2 acre, less than $300/sq.ft.:

I happen to know that there is an error on this page. Can you find it?

[data from generally reliable sources, please comment on any errors!]