Tax Refund Toys?

TOTALLY Agree this spring is going to be the best time to buy the is like you said "when purchased intelligently"

 

this year i think i will be taking my family to Disney with most of the money. the rest into the house. plus the wife is hitting me up for my sperm, yup it will be an expensive year.

 

It depends on the area you're in and how you think the economy is going to fan out. I think it's still too early. Home prices in my area dropped almost 10% over the last year (one of the highest drops in the nation) and it shows no signs of slowing. Of course, we're also one of the highest median priced areas in the country ($440K). Personally, I'd wait for it to level off or even a slight uptick before I would consider buying. I think there's going to be many more repos as people who picked up those wacky "interest-only for 5 years" loans have to suddenly start paying back principle. They were common in our area when the affordability index hit around 10% (about 10% of the people living here could afford to pay for a median priced home). When that interest-only period expires, it can mean an increase in the monthly payment of almost $1K or more per month. I think many of the people who went for those loans were hoping they could flip the home before the term expired and use the equity to put down on another home.