B.I. Home Prices down 38% in 1 Year

[hpp4me]

This article is relevant to the ongoing discussion on the forum about whether it is better to build or buy:

http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/stori...ily18.html

[hpp4me]

Would any of you real estate professionals like to make a prediction on where the price of residential real estate will be on the East Side over the next 12-24 months? Do you suppose we have hit bottom? Will we see further drops? The start of a recovery?

I ask for purely selfish reasons. These low prices appear to be making the choice between buying an established home versus building a new one quite easy. Buying seems to be better than building. At the same time, we don't feel like we will be ready to buy for another year or two because of another costly project we've taken on. If we wait, will it be too late to take advantage of these prices?

[john the architect]

As an architect who built his own home, I advise anyone in this situation to look at what is available. Are the homes for sale well-designed sustainable homes with low maintenance, low utilities, comfort and high value, or are they same old same old commodity wood, drywall, mold, shag carpet, hot boxes? If you can find affordable land where you want to live around conscious neighbors, prices are down on materials and labor. Prioritize, go for what you want, start with the basics, invest in quality, plan for flexibility and future expansion, and I think you will be well off that way.

[Jimbos]

I don't care what the economy is, if you have the means to build your own home you will still come out ahead but if you don't have the talent and have to hire others then looking around and buying something already built may be best.

[hpp4me]

Thanks for the post and link. Good article!

To clarify, we're not doing market timing. We're building another home off continent and can't really begin to think about our BI build out for another 12-24 months. My guess is that even if we have hit bottom, there is such a large inventory that prices will remain low for a couple of more years. Just a guess...