You are thinking of buying a home – but not sure if now is the “right time”.  If you are waiting for the perfect time – it was May of 2011. It isn’t coming back.  I fully understand that numerous national experts are blathering on about a “bubble” and the big problems that will result from all of the institutional investor owned homes in thePhoenixarea.  All of the people spewing this nonsense (even the ones wearing suits and who have a doctorate degree) have one thing in common: they have no actual grasp of the market and aren’t really very good at counting either.  Don’t rely on them to guide you on the decision to buy.  Did any of them tell you to buy back in May of 2011?  Nope.

Arizonaprices would need to rise another 48% to make a new all time high.  Foreclosures here (a meaningful LEADING indicator) are already below normal.  Short sales are falling fast.  The rate at which prices are rising is slowing as the market returns to normal.  Interest rates are no longer at record lows but still much lower than the average mortgage interest rate (8.6%) for the past 40 years.  A year or two from now, people who wait will say I should have bought back in the last quarter of 2013.

“Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.”

~ Niels Bohr