0:00Are you one of those buyers who has been waiting for the housing market to crash before you step in and buy? I’d love to share some history and some perspective with you.

0:10This chart is the Case-Shiller National Home Price Index since 1942. In those eighty-four years, home values have either stayed the same or gone up except for six years total.

0:28One was in 1990, and the other five were caused directly by the subprime crisis between 2007 and 2011. Now, the subprime crisis didn’t start in 2007. It started back in 2002.

0:45It started when lenders began offering mortgages to people who couldn’t afford them.

0:51If you had a pulse, you could get a mortgage. That isn’t happening today. There are people sitting on the sidelines waiting for a 20 to 40% drop in home prices, saying, “I’m going to buy when home prices are thirty percent lower.”

1:07Well, just look at this chart. From 2007 to 2011, home prices came down nationally 26% in total, from a crisis that was caused by lending.

1:22So what is going to cause a 20, 30 or 40% drop in home prices today, when we actually have, frankly, a healthy housing market? Whether you like it or not, there is a cost to waiting.

1:37This chart shows how much your home would have appreciated from the year you purchased it until today.

1:44Had you bought a home in 2000, your home value would be up by 230%. Had you purchased a home in 2020, your home value would be up by 54%. People who choose not to buy because they think home prices are too high and have to come down are not winning in this market.

2:04Now, there’s something I want to mention: real estate is hyper-local. You have to look at whether your job market is strong. How much new construction is going on? What zoning laws are being introduced that could impact home prices?

2:22Real estate markets are local. If you look at home prices nationally since the Fed started raising rates in 2022, home prices are up about 9.5%.

2:33In Raleigh, it’s 8.3%. In Phoenix, Arizona, it’s down 5%. You’re not buying on a national basis, you’re buying on a local basis. I help families build wealth, but I put them into homes first.

2:49If you can afford to buy a home today, in a neighborhood you want to live in, in a home you’ve fallen in love with, then now is the right time to buy.

2:59My name is Patrick Gallagher. I’m the founder of Exhale Lending, and I can help you get pre-approved. Thank you.