Even As The Holidays Approach, You Still Can Buy A Home This Year

With Thanksgiving around the corner, Hanukkah beginning a week after, and Christmas only four weeks away, despite all the fun, food, and celebrations, if you have your focus laser beam tight, you can buy a house before the end of 2015.

But why in the world would you want to take any time away from your cherished Holiday traditions – including deep frying a Turducken, hosting a marathon game of Risk, standing in store lines at zero dark thirty on Black Friday, or marching with the Brief Case Drill Team in the Occasional Pasadena Doo Dah Parade – to buy a house?

Here are a couple reasons I can think of that might get your boots on the ground, pounding the local pavements as you deploy from your Realtor’s car, searching for the right house and getting into a time-sucking battle of counter offers until you make a deal.

Taxes: Buying a house triggers a “taxable event” that may give you some tax advantages for your 2015 return, if you close before the end of this year.

Check with your tax professional to see which of your closing costs can be deducted from your taxable income. And as far as I know, for 2016, your mortgage interest paid on your primary residence still qualifies as a tax deduction. This is another point for you to confirm with your tax professional.

Look at you – winning this year and all of next year! Motivated now?

Mortgage Interest Rates: Are you a gambler? There you are, needing a bigger place for yourself, your spouse or significant other, your kids, their kids and your sister (one definition of the modern family).

How long are you going to wait out the impending increase in mortgage interest rates, which will erode your buying power? Because as mortgage interest rates rise, your qualifying loan amount typically decreases. You might choose to leave the Risk marathon, pick up your Pre-Approval letter and go find a house to buy for your “clan.”

Motivated Sellers: If you can take your eye off the Turducken for just a few minutes and study the stats of the homes you’re actually interested in owning, you might see a trend toward a higher number of days on the market in your target zone.

Do you think the owner of a house that’s been listed for sale for 220 days might be motivated to respond to your offer, even if it is as low as your respectable Realtor will let you go? It’s worth a try.

Thirty Day Escrow: Despite the implementation of new lending guidelines, savvy lenders can and are accommodating 30 day escrows. Which means yes, you can buy a house before the end of 2015! So grab your brief case and get going!