Should I buy now?

September 23, 2008 2:08 PM

In the market of Buying a Condo in the Los Angeles areas and want to know how to research best. Need to find out sites that keep me up to date with the housing market, when its good to buy etc...for with the economy right now I don't really know what to do.....please help

I held off from buying a condo cause I was having a wedding and now that that's over I wanted to start looking for a condo. But now the economy just sucks and now when I have the time to devout to finding a place I feel it might be wise to hold off. I need to find sites that can get me in touch with whats going on with the housing market out here in the LA areas. My plan was to get a condo by end of year or beginning of next...i manage a apt complex so rent is free and I have saved a lot, but we are soooo tired of the small one bedroom that to keep our sanity I was maybe even thinking that getting a 2 bedroom apt for a year might be more wise and when the lease is up maybe the economy will be too and we can buy a condo then....any help would be greatly appreciated

posted by matthelm to Home & Garden (5 answers total)

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laland/

http://westside-bubble.blogspot.com/

http://mbcon.blogspot.com/

www.thefifthofmay.blogspot.com

http://countrywide-foreclosures.blogspot.com/
posted by GIRLesq at 2:51 PM on September 23, 2008

ALSO:

Ziprealty.com and Redfin.com
posted by GIRLesq at 2:52 PM on September 23, 2008

Curbed I think most people would agree that the housing market is going to continue to decline, especially in California where it went up the most. This is good if you want to buy, so waiting a few months wouldn't be a bad idea if you can stand it. You are actually in a great position, as this is shaping up to become a buyers market. Finding a loan is going to be the difficult part, as with all of the crap going on in the news right now banks are going to be very careful in how they choose to lend out their money. Just shop around for a while and make sure you get a fixed rate loan and not one of those nasty adjustable rate mortgages that got us into all of this mess.

LA Times Real Estate Blog
LA Real Estate Blog from Jon Strum
Terra Firma
Curbed LA (A few more linked from title bar)
Fran and Rowena's Real Estate Blog (General)
posted by sophist at 6:31 PM on September 23, 2008

To answer the question in the header -- Should I buy now? -- I would answer 'no', if you want to save a few tens of thousands of dollars as the market continues its slide. Wait 12 months or so.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:36 PM on September 23, 2008

Response by poster: Thanks for the info, I was thinking about renting a larger space than I currently have(i manage a complex so rent is free right now, but space is too small and need to get out) for a year and seeing where things were at....I could still save a bit of money while renting and this extra space would help and free time away from managing apartments would give me extra time to spend studying the market etc....at the same time I am getting people still saying that its still a great time to buy...
posted by matthelm at 2:30 PM on September 24, 2008