“This is why homeownership has been such an important part of the American Dream, because people have used it as a way to save. And it’s been a relatively safe way to save,” Zandi says. “Now of course, as we know as we have seen, there are ups and downs. But in general it’s been a pretty good investment.”
Everybody is very nervous and reticent to dive back in, but it’s the people who do that benefit in the long run.

Buy Now To ‘Benefit In The Long Run

Zandi says the housing crash hasn’t changed the nature of homeownership.

“The other thing to consider is that like any asset — after a crash, after prices have fallen very quickly — everybody is very nervous and reticent to dive back in, but it’s the people who do that who benefit in the long run,” he says.

Zandi has been tracking home prices as they’ve fallen in cities and neighborhoods across the country. And he’s asking this question: Does it make sense for people to buy a home right now?

“I think the arithmetic is such that if you plan to live in your home five or more years, then you should really consider buying a single-family home in most parts of the country at this point in time,” he says. “Prices have fallen so far, that single-family housing now is very, very attractive; very affordable [...] and it’s now even attractive relative to renting.”

Cost Of Owning Has Sunk

While it’s been getting cheaper to own a home, it’s actually been getting more expensive to rent a place to live.
Gleb Nechayev is a housing economist with CBRE Econometric Advisors, a real estate research firm in Boston. Nechayev has a chart that shows the cost of owning a house compared to renting. Back in 2006, the cost-of-owning line on the chart was reaching its peak, but now the line has plunged down — like the cliff of a mountain.

The Buy vs. Rent Ratio Over Time

These days, the monthly cost of renting or buying a home is about the same. That one-to-one ratio is the lowest in 25 years. That’s down from 2006, just before the housing market crashed, when the cost of owning was 46 percent higher than renting.

Source: Gleb Nechayev/CBRE Econometric Advisors

“We are at the very bottom of that mountain right now and we have never seen that ratio so low,” Nechayev says.
Nechayev’s data goes back to 1986. And he says since then, it’s never been this cheap to own a house as compared to the cost of renting. Of course, these are national averages and there are some big differences depending on the city and neighborhood and type of home.
But overall, it’s gotten so cheap that Nechayev is puzzled why more people aren’t buying.

“The fact that we haven’t seen people jumping at this opportunity does suggest that we might be witnessing some kind of changing perception of homeownership,” he says.

Nechayev says younger would-be homebuyers may be deciding to live in cities, where it can still be harder to find and afford a nice home or condo in a good neighborhood.

And he says job mobility is a big issue for many people in the still shaky economy. If they have to move to take a new job, it’s a lot easier to do as a renter.

• Kyle Lindsey Custom Homes – Kyle Lindsey Custom Homes is a homebuilder who has been in the business for 14 years. Kyle Lindsey is the President and CEO of Kyle Lindsey Custom Homes. This homebuilder has won three Summit awards, and Kyle serves at the President of the Custom Builder’s Council for the Greater San Antonio Builder’s Association. In addition, he is also involved with the Texas Association of Builders and the National Association of Builders. He is also on the Mayor’s Sustainability Task Force and the Technical Advisory Committee for Build San Antonio Green.

“When customers give me the opportunity to build their home, I let them know up front that they are dealing with the CEO and project manager. When they choose Kyle Lindsey Custom Homes, they get Kyle Lindsey,” says Kyle.
In addition to the Dominion, Kyle Lindsey Custom Homes builds homes in Cibolo Canyons, Cordillera Ranch, Highland Ranch, Sendero Ranch, Champion Ridge, Sonterra Ranch and Terrell Hills, just to name a few.

• Burdick Custom Homes – Burdick Custom Homes has been a leading homebuilder in San Antonio for more than two decades. Burdick Custom Homes have received numerous accolades over the years, including five awards at the 2004 Parade of Homes at Renaissance Court at the Dominion. The awards given to Burdick Custom Homes include: the President’s Award, the People’s Choice Award and the Realtor’s Choice Award.

In addition to building in the Dominion, Burdick Custom Homes builds in Anaqua Springs, Champions Ridge, Cordillera Ranch, the Pinnacle and Waterford Heights.

• Prestige Homes –Prestige Homes is the oldest locally owned and operated home builder in San Antonio and has been building homes since 1959. Other communities Prestige Homes builds in include: The Elms, French Creek, the Renaissance and Ridge Creek.

VIP Realty, San Antonio military relocation experts, can help you find a new home in San Antonio and make your move to San Antonio easier for both you and your family.
Along with the help of San Antonio military relocation experts like VIP Realty, here is your timeline for planning your military move:

• Confirm the dates of your move and the first day you are to report to your position. Then create a calendar with your family to start the planning process.

• Contact a local real estate agent to put your home on the market and contact a trusted realtor in San Antonio, like VIP Realty, to begin your home search in San Antonio. Then, schedule a trip to San Antonio to begin house hunting.

• While you are in San Antonio, take the time to look at schools and recreational activities for you and your family. If you can’t bring your family with you on your trip to San Antonio, take your camera along and take many pictures to keep your family in the loop.

• About two months before your move, begin preparing a comprehensive list of everyone you will need to contact regarding your move. Everything from your newspaper delivery service and creditors to friends and family will need to be notified of your move.

• Stop by your local post office to pick up a mover’s guide and change-of-address forms.

• With the help of your family, start making decisions regarding what can go and what will go with you. If you have the time, hold a yard sale. Begin packing things you don’t need right now so that the packing process will not be overwhelming for everyone.

• Once you have found a new home in San Antonio, contact your children’s school to have all records transferred to their new school. Contact the new school and get them registered. In addition, contact their physician and have their records transferred to a new physician in San Antonio.

The pricing structure of single family homes in Terrell Hills shows that this suburb starts at middle to upper middle class pricing. A newlywed couple wanting to start a family can surely find a home under the two hundred thousand dollar mark, but the four to five hundred thousand ranges seem to be more abundant currently. The landscape on each street will show the progression of home styling over this area’s almost one hundred year range, and it is very common to see a home built in the 1940s next to a custom home built that was constructed in 2003 or later.

Overall, the Terrell Hills area homes are perfect for raising a family, and mimic the lifestyle you will find in nearby independent municipalities. The good news is that its residents are only five miles from downtown San Antonio, so work, and shopping are really at their fingertips. The daily commute is an easy one whether is to downtown or other destinations in the Alamo city, but Terrell Hills is just far enough to stay out of reach of the tourism trade on the weekends, and in the summer.

For those trying save a few dollars and have stay-cations instead of traveling vacations, you could not ask for a more perfect city to live in with all the family oriented venues available. Fiesta Texas, Sea-World, San Antonio Zoo, and The Texas Hill Country are all very close to Terrell Hills, and makes for a great hub or starting point to visit all that is available in the area.

Make sure when relocating to the San Antonio area that you ask your Realtor to find some offerings in this uniquely blended suburb, and once you compare it to other offerings around town, you will be back for a second look or to make an offer

San Antonio is starting to show up on the business real estate radar a little more frequently, as the city offers a combination of low cost of doing business, and a base of local talent that is highly educated, and has been out of work for most of the last three years. So marketing, sales, engineering, management, and core support personnel are in place and ready to work for a lower wage than say in Houston, or Dallas.

A shrewd developer would be looking at converting a lot of the manufacturing sector into modern industrialized office space for local, national, and international companies to rent for satellite locations. Currently it is going to waste, and creating a high tech, but industrial minimalist look would attract prospective businesses. This would also kill some of the urban blight seen by freeway, and Interstate travelers coming in and out of the city on a regular basis, and give the city a little tweak or makeover around the rough edges.

Believe it or not one-room offices, and space for cafe’s and bistros are in high demand right now, and you will see an even larger demand soon. Many of those displaced workers from 2008 and on have had to create their own business enterprises on a small scale to just bring in a paycheck to feed their families. These businesses were created out of desperation, but a large percentage have pulled out of their terrible two’s and have started to mature to the point where they need legitimate leased business space to operate with new employees coming onboard.

Is the worst over for the commercial real estate sector in San Antonio? The answer is not completely, but there enough activity to create the momentum everyone has been waiting for, and the time is right start new business concerns, and expanding the older ones. In addition, the family entertainment venues keep traffic flowing into the Alamo City, and is most likely the deciding factor when it comes to needing more eating choices in the area.

There are hundreds of brokers that Texas licensed real estate agents can work for, and there are huge differences in many. Some will just do nothing, and wait for you to bring them their cut of the commission when selling a property. VIP Realty is far removed from this type of real estate model. We actually take a proactive approach, in all facets of training to help each agent realize their full potential in whatever real estate market they would like to specialize in during their career. One on one mentoring, online training, and class-based education is an on going process, and made available the instant you come aboard the VIP Realty Team.

Every real estate professional needs an arsenal of tools to help leverage their time, and abilities in the field today, and VIP realty has gone out of it’s ways to create a network of Internet realty sites. This network not only lists the homes that you currently are trying to sell, but we have created one of the most successful real estate lead systems in the state of Texas.

People have increased their home shopping with the advent of smart cell phones such as the Droid, Blackberry, and IPhone, so looking for homes that fit their needs can be done almost anywhere today, and ranking number for the most keyword phrases pertaining to the Texas real estate niche is the number goal of VIP Realty. Currently we are number one for several keywords that homebuyers search for in several markets.

You may be concerned about commission schedules as all brokers offer different scales and structures to their agents. VIP is very flexible, and has one to fit your sales levels, and personal financial needs.

If you are new to realty industry, or ready for a change to work with a supportive team that has an absolute goal of making you number one in your market, the VIP Realty is going to be your next phone call

Currently homes in the Alamo City, are great targets for investors, and real estate flippers that have the cash to invest, and time to wait until the economy is in a bull market once again. Otherwise a large down payment, a credit score of above seven hundred, and a good job will the only way to get a ten or fifteen year home mortgage approved.

The commercial sector is showing promise, as there are many small businesses that are seeking retail space for coffee shops, diners, and other specialty eating establishments that cater to the large base of tourism that descends on San Antonio year round. Many think that the influx of eating establishments was created from the gaping hole in the employment sector that started a few years back, and people started creating their own incomes from lack of new job opportunities at the time.

Warehouse districts are being picked at by national corporations as they are looking to once again expand in promising markets. Wholesale food distributors and vendor support companies for Sea-World, Fiesta Texas, and the River Walk have been entertaining expansion to larger facilities, as well as a commercial electrical supply distributor.

The sports, and medical industries are on the rise, and currently one of out seven of San Antonio’s employees work in the healthcare or bioscience fields. This dictates that a modicum of growth will come from both, as the population expands, and the large amount of people currently relocating the to the Lone Star State to find jobs to support their families.

Overall, the San Antonio real estate has remained resilient in spite of what the media pours out daily, and is above the fold regardless of how much the media has been reporting that the sky is falling. In some ways, you might say San Antonio is doing better than Houston and Dallas currently

Whether they are still serving their country, are veterans, or retired there is a VA mortgage to fit a service person’s needs in the housing market. Actually with the guarantee of the government behind each home loan, this is probably the majority of home mortgages being approved currently. There are several real estate firms that work closely with all branches of the military, and have many resource on speed dial to help in gaining a first time buyers, or even a VA home refinance loan.

Military service persons on active duty, and have a modicum of rank (E5 and above), have a handsome BAH allowance each month, and can easily make a mortgage payment with a little money left over for incidentals. This is a perfect time to start making a permanent home for one’s self prior to retirement, or opting of the service to work in the private sector. The interest rates are never going to get better than they are currently, and since it is a buyers market, it is like the perfect storm for someone wanting to finally own a home.

A VA loan does not give a person a pass on bad credit, and if there are past due bills, or writes off on the applicants credit file, then they will need to be taken care of prior to applying. Having hardcopy, proof in hand that these old bills have been taken care of will trump the credit report any day of the week. Be warned, honesty is the only policy when applying for any type of credit today. After the fraudulent mortgage fallout, government backed lenders are prosecuting fraud cases to the fullest existent the law will allow.

VA loans are a great benefit after having served your country, but they should not be taken lightly, as they are a privilege and not a right

Sure you can buy a two million dollar condo in a high rise near the River Walk, but that kind of money will buy a homeowner so much more in Alamo Heights, and will offer that qualify of lifestyle that so many strive for when house hunting. There is an eclectic mix of home designs to chose from, and also a large selection of contemporary living quarters that have been built in recent years to appeal to the younger crowd that appreciates the atmosphere that has been created in this city that is small in size, but huge character.

Whether your budget is a little over one hundred thousand, or you want to blow your recently acquired inheritance on a six thousand square foot custom home complete with cabana style outdoor living in the backyard, and dining pavilion with kitchen. People today have a much larger list of features, options, and amenities in their home shopping lists, on their property and in the subdivisions they reside. Alamo heights seems to fill these needs for most residents just fine, and it just a short commute into the city come Monday morning.

If you are a person that likes to renovate homes then the Spanish style villas that were built during prohibition era will be a great place to start looking. They do not come with deep discounts, but these homes were built with solid base materials that are still in quality condition today, and putting a new face or restoring them to their original charm will pay off big when it comes time to sell.

There is plenty of shopping in the city limits, but just hop on the freeway, and you are minutes from any shopping venue in and around the San Antonio Metroplex

Usually people want to enjoy a taste of resort living, with that five star hotel ambiance throw in for good measure will be the perfect buyer of these steel, and glass-encased homes. Even though a condo on the twentieth floor will not offer the standard fare a single family home will, the costs are much higher, due to the upkeep, and of course downtown real estate is always at a premium in most large cities.

The prestige of having a twenty-four hour doorman, concierge service, and complete business center, plus around the clock fitness spa are just a few of the amenities that high rise dwellers look for when shopping for a new condo. There are basically four major San Antonio high rise options

• Vidorra Condos

• Alteza Condos

• La Cascada

• The Broadway

They all offer a unique decor, and themes, but the one common thread is a luxurious lifestyle that only the few can afford, while the many dream of when driving by the buildings themselves. It gives some homeowners the satisfaction of feeling they have finally made it to the big leagues, and their home is an iconic display of accomplishment.

There is of course a slight dip in every real estate market currently, but with the lack of competition in this exacting niche of home purchasing do not expect a huge break in pricing. High-rise living is not for everyone, and a testing period should be considered before signing on a new mortgage for such an extravagant purchase. Leasing a condo for six months in the preferred building you are looking make your purchase should give a sense of if this is the best fit for you and your family.

When planning your future housing budget for a purchase of this magnitude, be sure and speak with management about all the monthly and annual fees that might not be mentioned up front, as they can range in the several hundred dollars per month.