Hello. Hello friends. Welcome back to Cheer News. I'm Baker.
I had a by now too, stretching your dollar in today's real estate market.
The dream of home ownership can seem like an uphill battle for so many people.
Yeah, indeed.
So a recent report from the US Department of
Commerce showed home sales actually increased 4.1% in the month
of April this year compared to the month before and
up 11.8% from the same period just last year.
So joining us now with some advice on how to get into the market is Kirsten Jordan,
a
real estate broker over at Douglas E
real estate, Kirsten. Such a pleasure to have you here.
Thank you so much for joining us.
Home affordability got more expensive last month,
which is insane even think about because it always feels like it's been expensive,
right?
How can you create a realistic budget and actually
attain some of these attainable things that you want?
You know, it's really,
really hard right now because I think a lot of buyers are feeling just
like rates don't look like they're coming down any time soon if they do come down,
it means that we're in a big recession.
So that's something that nobody really wants to see and
getting inflation under control is super important for the government.
And so they are really focused on keeping rates high, right?
And so what you need to do in order to get
started is make sure that you fix your costs now.
So if you can have the potential to,
if you're leasing because you haven't bought that home yet,
make sure that you sign a two year lease, maybe they give you a three year lease,
but try to fix those costs if you know,
it's going to take you a couple of years to be
able to save up to afford for that down payment.
So that's number one.
Number two is also is one of my favorite things,
which I say it's called hiding money from yourself.
I'm a big fan of hiding money for myself.
It's not a good thing for me to have all my cash in my checking account, right?
And when a big check comes in or a bonus or some sort of liquidity event,
make sure that you put aside some of it so you can't touch it.
So just do like automatic savings
classic. It's the cliche of pay yourself first. Sure.
If you didn't need to need to save to be able to put down
a down payment because a lot of cases people right now are saying,
listen, I spend so much money on rent.
How am I gonna save to buy a home?
I need to, you know, I need to be able to put down,
maybe it's $100,000 maybe it's a million dollars in New York City.
And I need to figure out how to put down that, that amount of money.
So saving, forcing savings, hiding money from yourself is, is a big thing to do.
And the other thing I really love to tell people is spend on what you like spending on,
don't spend on what doesn't bring you joy.
So instead of focusing, I mean, you clearly have to get your numbers right.
You need to kind of, you know, do some calculations to know what,
how much time it's gonna take you to truly save, but focus on saving where it doesn't,
it's not something that really feels like you're sacrificing are there dos
and don's for home buyers regarding mortgage preapproval and of course,
those financing options.
I mean, as far as mortgaging, preapproval,
I would definitely recommend going with a bank that first of all,
start with the bank where you bank see what they have going on because
sometimes they can give you better rates and then shop around a little bit.
Make sure that you get an idea of what else is out there right now.
A lot of people who plan on refinancing when the rates
come back down again in a couple of years they're doing,
you know, interest only mortgages, they're doing adjustable rate mortgages.
And frankly,
I don't think that's so bad because building wealth
right now by home ownership is probably more important
than being obsessed with whether things are going to
go up a little bit in your monthly payments.
We have less than a minute left here with you.
Are there financial options or assistance programs available
for people for first time home buyers,
for first time home buyers.
It depends on the state that you live in.
So it's definitely worth taking a look into that.
But there are people who have with through their business or their or their job,
they have special banks that they get a couple of points off.
If you have any of those va programs where there's no, you know,
no money down mortgages,
it's really important to do your research because if you look under the surface,
maybe as a, even as an educator or a doctor, there are programs that are available.
Such great advice, especially in today's market,
Jordan. Thank you so much. All right guys coming up the opening bell on Wall Street.
Just a few moments away
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