Foreclosure woes, mortgage crisis, home equity loans drying up, new home sales dropping to the lowest since 2001. Every time I read the newspaper, there is another new headline telling me how bad the real estate market is.

Yes, real estate is down, and it could go down further. The foreclosure rate as I write this is 5.1% nationwide and a whopping 17% on sub prime adjustable rate loans.

What does this mean to the investor? If you have sat on the sidelines all of this time, might now be the time to buy? This was recently asked of me during a presentation. My answer: “I don’t know, it is an individual decision; I think it’s all about timing.”

Look at the stock market. When it crashed in 1987, anyone buying right after the crash would have made a fortune. Is this the same thing in real estate? How about when gold was under $300 an ounce?

I really don’t have a crystal ball to say, “Yes, buy real estate.” It could take years to get out of the real estate mess, but in the meantime, it is up to you to decide if this is the buying opportunity you have been waiting for.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 29th, 2007 at 8:56 am and is filed under Investing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.