Monday, April 7, 2008

Local Information and Market Trends for apartment purchase

It’s a great time to buy an apartment in Texas right now. Four factors benefit apartment buyers are as follows:

Low interest rates
We are seeing interest rates in the 6% range. A lot of apartment owners who are planning to sell their dallas tx apartment are refinancing right now. Most of what you hear about refinancing in the news right now is related to adjustable rate mortgages. But, there are also a lot of people refinancing to take advantage of the good rates. So, the rates are good news not just for apartment buyers, but also for current apartment owners.

Large selection of apartments
Believe it or not, this number is actually lower than it was a few months ago, when there were almost 12,000. It’s great that we’re seeing a reduction in apartments for sale because that means that apartments are being taken off the market – due to selling, renting them out instead, or simply being withdrawn. As this number gradually comes back down, we’ll see more of a balance in the market – so there won’t be such a strong buyers market here. The bottom line is that buyers have a lot of choices right now for apartments. And, a large inventory leads to the next factor.

Lowest prices in years
Because there are so many houston apartments, sellers have to compete in order to sell. This means lower prices for buyers. You can get a lot more for your money in Texas than you could have even a year ago.

Motivated sellers
Texas has a strong buyers market. Sellers are not only reducing their prices, but they’re also willing to do a lot more now to get their apartments sold. Of course, not all sellers are motivated. But, for the most part, sellers know that they have to be reasonable to sell their apartments. Having more flexible sellers is great for buyers wanting to negotiate.

Texas real estate market really benefits buyers, especially those looking to move up and those who don’t have a current apartment to sell (like first-time apartment buyers). On the other hand, the market does not benefit buyers who are downsizing or investors who are trying to liquidate properties. These two groups of buyers should wait until the market picks back up again – hopefully that won’t be too long.