The final reason for buying a home in the Tyler – East Texas area is that it is an awesome place to live!  We have friendly folks, a welcoming community, forward thinking leadership, great weather, and lots of things to do!  Our rush hours only lasts about 30 minutes!  We are the East Texas hub for retail, medical, education and recreation. People come from 70 miles away to see doctors or shop.  We have wonderful restaurants, a number of theaters, and a world class symphony orchestra.
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Another great reason to buy a home in Tyler in this economy is that home ownership is still an attractive option compared to renting.  With the super low interest rates your house payment is definitely cheaper than what you would pay in rent for a comparable house – even after including insurance and tax escrows.
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You might find a distressed property.  Thankfully, Tyler and East Texas weren’t involved as heavily in the predatory lending and speculative buying that caused a lot of the foreclosures in other parts of the country.  Tyler and East Texas did have a few freewheeling lenders who are no longer in business but we are left with their fallout – an above average number of foreclosures.
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The national news keeps saying that it’s a buyer’s market.   I hate to keep repeating myself, but because of our modest appreciation in home values over the years, we didn’t have buyer feeding frenzies so we never had a strong Seller’s market.  We have gone from a balanced market to buyers market in some areas and in some price ranges.

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Houses are affordable again!

As mentioned in an an earlier blog, Tyler didn’t have the yearly double digit appreciation in values so we didn’t have a bubble to burst.  We have consistently ranked below the national average in home prices and our homes were already a great value.

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Ever since I chose real estate as my full time profession 17 years ago, interest rates have been steadily dropping, with the occasional, short lived, uptick.  Now, this week, Freddie Mac has announced that mortgage interest rates area officially at their all time low at under 4.0% for a 30 year note!

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he second reason you should buy a house now is that prices have pretty much bottomed out. Here in the Tyler – East Texas area we didn’t have the double digit appreciation in values so we didn’t have folks using their homes like an ATM machine getting out the equity. Because of that, we didn’t have folks walking away when their home values started dropping. Due to our moderate appreciation in values, diversified economy, and strong job market, the Tyler and East Texas has not been impacted by a bunch of foreclosures like other parts of the country.

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Over the next several blogs I’m going to be talking about the eight best reasons to buy a home in the Tyler – East Texas area.  I am going to have to credit my New York Life Insurance agent, Steve Hardin, for giving me an article from the October issue of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance which is serving as my inspiration for this series of blogs.

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Foreclosures are still hitting the market in the East Texas area, not as bad as the beginning of 2009, but they are still appearing.  Some forecasters are saying that about 20% of the mortgages are significantly behind and they believe there is another wave of foreclosures coming along this Spring. 

 Though there can be some bargains out there – the road to buying a foreclosure or distressed sale is pitted with potholes!  There are a number of myths being propagated on television and other media that I want to address.

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