Best time of year to buy property in NYC

December 14, 2018 | By SPIRE Group
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If you have the resources and you’ve been thinking about investing in real estate - we’re here to tell you that’s probably a great idea! Not in all cases, though - and not at all times. For example - if you’re thinking of buying real estate in New York, you should know what the ideal time to do so is. As you’ll see - there are a lot of factors at play here, and you need to consider them all. That’s why you have to do quite a lot of research to know what the best time of year to buy property in NYC is. Don’t worry though - we’re here to boil it down for you, with a few helpful tips.

Is it a good idea to buy property in NYC?

Before you put a down payment on your house and start looking for assistance for your move to New York - you should definitely think things through. But we don’t want to discourage you from making real estate investments altogether - it’s just really important to do your due diligence. On the other hand, you’ll realize that real estate investment has many great boons when compared to other, more liquid investments.

For example - if you’re going to buy property in NYC, and we’re talking about a house or an apartment; you get the benefit of home ownership. And while that may not mean as much today as it did in the past; it’s still more security for you and your family, compared to living in a rented area.

It’s harder to get scammed with real estate

One of the typical questions anyone asks while wondering whether to buy property in NYC is - how safe is a real estate investment? When you’re going to put down your hard earned money into any kind of investment, you want to be sure there won’t be any wrongdoing. That’s why, before asking yourself if this is the right time of the year to buy property - ask yourself if you’re doing business with the right people.

Luckily for you though - with real estate, it’s much more difficult to get scammed than with other types of investment. To put it simply - at the end of the day, real estate is more tangible and more realistic; something you can check out for yourself. That’s why fraud is much less likely to happen if you do your homework on a property. Really, it’s all about finding the right people to do business with. And once you find the right real estate agents, everything else will fall into place.

When should you actually buy property?

If you’ve definitely decided that you want to buy property in NYC and invest in real estate - great! But now you have to learn when the best time for doing that is. While you may think that the timing is not all that important if you’ve got the money to invest - trust us, it is. So, before you start going through open houses, take some time to plan out when you’re going to invest. Once you get into the details of real estate investment, you’ll see just how important timing really is.

But what are the factors that influence the decision when you should start looking for houses? Well, we can really separate these into two categories. The first one would be your own personal factors - things that are related to you, and you alone. On the other hand, you’ve got the objective market conditions, which are equally important.

Take a look at your personal finances

Once you make the monumental decision to buy a home, you’ll be all hyped up. In fact, you may be tempted to snatch the first one you see and call a moving company like Ample Moving NJ to take you there. But before you do any of that - think about your personal situation and your own finances. These are a major factor when deciding whether to buy property in NYC, for obvious reasons.

Still, we want to remind you - having the money for a down payment isn’t all that matters; there are all kinds of other costs to deal with. First of all, are you completely sure that you can afford the upkeep of your new piece of property? Trust us - maintenance costs are nothing to sneeze at, and most people don’t even think about them. Also - think about other things, like property taxes.

 

Market conditions are important

After the 2008 financial crisis, one thing has become more obvious than ever - studying real estate markets is important. And that’s true regardless of whether you’re going to buy property in NYC or in Alabama. So, before making a purchase - take a look at the national and regional trends for the real estate market. And, apart from that - make sure you time your investment just right, to get favorable prices.

For example, if you can choose when to buy real estate in a given year - taking a look at the listings in January isn’t a bad idea. Trust us - if you’re buying, you’ll find favorable prices in this period even in a seller’s market. Why? Well, by the time January rolls around, most properties that are still up for grabs will have been listed for a few months; which means their current owners are more than ready to make a deal. And by this time, the real estate summer heyday is long behind them - so you’ll probably get better odds!