Is This The Right Time To Buy A Home in Idaho?
Homes aren’t likely to get cheaper. According to data from CoreLogic, home prices have jumped 5.9 percent over the last year and are projected to continue to rise at a rate of 5.3 percent next year. In fact, home values are projected to climb more than 3.2 percent a year over the next five years.
Mortgage rates are low, for now.
Home buyers can save on their monthly mortgage costs. Borrowing costs have hit three-year lows recently, but they aren’t likely to stay there. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.41 percent last week, getting close to its record low of 3.31 percent set in November 2012. That said, many economists are predicting that mortgage rates will begin to rise soon. Both NAR and the Mortgage Bankers Association project that rates will climb nearly a full percentage point by this time next year.
Renting is getting pricier.
Households that are paying rent instead of buying are often getting a worse deal. A paper from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies says: “Households must consume housing whether they own or rent. Not even accounting for more favorable tax treatment of owning, home owners pay debt service to pay down their own principal while households that rent pay down the principal of a landlord plus a rate of return. That’s yet another reason owning often does—as Americans intuit—end up making more financial sense than renting.”
