2008 - The Best Time in 35 Years to Buy a Home

If history is any indication, right now is the best buyer’s market we’ve seen in 35 years.  Here’s some data to support this fact.  In April of 1973, mortgage rates were about the same as they are today. Since that time, we have only had mortgage rates this low during 2001 and 2002, the height of the seller’s market where there was little inventory. In the last two major buyer’s markets, one in the early 1980s and the other in the early 1990s, the rates were much higher. In 1978, interest rates were at 9.75 percent, en route to 18 to 21 percent in 1980. In the early 1990s, the rates were hovering in the 11 to 12 percent range. Thus, today’s buyer’s market, with exceptionally low mortgage rates plus a substantial supply of inventory, is the best time in decades to purchase.