To Buy or Not To Buy, That Is the Question

• August 17th 2009

by Mark Wellborn

This weekend, The New York Times had an interesting piece about the indecision and anxiety that home buyers exhibit in today’s market compared to a few years ago.

The piece puts forth the thesis that in the past, buyers did not spend very much time agonizing over the purchase of a new home because even if they regretted the decision, the chance that they could sell it for a profit in the years to come was fairly high. But now, varying reports about whether the market has reached bottom or not and a general feeling of uneasiness as to whether they are making a good investment have many buyers stuck on the fence.

From the NY Times:

These questions, psychologists say, have left a bewildered public even more unsure about what to do this summer, no matter what the economic indicators seem to point to. “The tipping point for many people is when they finally become exhausted by their emotions,” said Kathleen Gurney, the chief executive of the Financial Psychology Corporation in Miami, which studies the psychology of money management. “People will do anything to not regret how they feel.”

The question of “Is now the time to buy?” is perpetually on the mind of home buyers, but this article interviews both medical professionals and prospective buyers to try and figure out what goes through people’s minds when they are trying to make that decision. To read the full article, click here.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/to_buy_or_not_to_buy_that_is_the_question/1241.