The housing market is constantly changing. Even for the most experienced property buyers, certain aspects of the hosing market can be extremely confusing and lead to costly mistakes. First-time homebuyers, on the other hand, are at a severe disadvantage when it comes to purchasing a home because they have virtually no experience.
Of all the people in the market for homes today, roughly 32% of prospective buyers are actually first time buyers. That 32% equates to the highest number of first-time homebuyers since 2007.
According to KPLC, one of the more common mistakes that these novice homebuyers are making is not consulting with professional realtors. Professionals can offer prospective buyers knowledge that they might not get anywhere else. If someone goes into a buying situation with little to no knowledge about both property ownership and real estate purchasing, they might end up having to pay for things that they did not plan for.
“You don’t want to have any unknown things pop up when you buy a property, those are major expenses,” said Andrea Bryant, real estate managing agent. “Buying a home for the first time, you’ve got things like down payment, large expenses that come out of your pocket so you’re not going to have a lot of money necessarily to make those repairs.”
According to the BBC, during 2016, there were roughly 335,750 first-time buyers, which is the highest figure since the beginning of the financial crisis in 2007, at 359,9000 first-time homebuyers.
“Government schemes such as Help to Buy have improved affordability, enabling more first-time buyers to buy their own property,” said Martin Ellis, a housing economist who attributes the first time buyer boom to low mortgage rates in addition to high levels of employment.
Although there are more first-time buyers than ever before, because property values have also increased, there are many more long-term mortgages being taken out by these younger buyers.
Housing Market Seeing Highest Levels of First Time Buyers Since 2007
