Reasons Not to Try and Time the Real
Estate Market
Is Timing The Real
Estate Market
Possible?
There are two main reasons that most individuals and
investors shouldn’t try to time the property market. The
first is that investors are notoriously bad at it. Most
almost invariably wait too long to sell, and end up folding
at the bottom of the market. Then they wait far too long
to buy, and miss all the gains.
The second reason is that transaction costs can be high.
Between time spent on due diligence and hard closing
costs, you stand to lose a decent chunk of change if you
sell and rebuy the same property in an effort to time it.
Depending on where you are, and the fluctuation, this
Factors Involved in
Timing the Market
may be more of loss than if you just held, and received
income from the property in the meantime.
There are an enormous amount of
data points and factors to watch
when trying to time the market,
including:
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Affordability
Interest rates
Treasury bond yields
Taxes
Rents
Building costs
Seasonal fluctuations
Supply and new constructions
Default rates and bank balance
sheets
• Days on market
• Population growth and migration
patterns
• Jobs and wages
• Local economic trends
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