Move-up buyers, where have you gone?
Here's an interesting take from Calculated Risk on the endangered species of the housing market - the move-up buyer.
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First time buyers have increasingly become the sole source of demand in the sputtering housing market. After all, all they have to do is give notice to their landlord.
By contrast, homeowners looking to trade up can't move up until they can find a buyer for their home.
And, of course, the family selling the home you want to buy may be faced with the same dilemma, and so on.
It's a chain of transactions that during good times we all take for granted, but during bad times, can become highly problematic.
Sure, you can always try and rent out your home. If the idea of carrying two mortgages in this economy doesn't make you nervous, then go for it - provided you can find a banker who will play along.
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I would have been a move-up buyer, but instead I decided to add onto my Natick fixer-upper. I like my house and I like my town. Besides, once the market tanked, no one was going to take my sorry excuse for a starter home off my hands.
If anything, we are now seeing a trend of what I call move-down buyers, bailing out of homeownership for the perceived stability of the rental market.
Are you looking to move up, but can't? Or if you managed to trade up, how did you pull it off?
Please, share your secret with the rest of us.
