Data released today reveals an unexpected 7.4% jump in the pending home sales index. Andrew Snyder says the housing market is at or close to a bottom now. This means it could be the perfect time to buy a dream property on the cheap…

This from Today’s Financial News:

Although we have heard stories of horrific markets from across the country, the really negative action is coming from just a few localities. Places like southern California, Las Vegas, Miami, and Manhattan have gotten slammed. But the true heart of the nation, places like North Dakota, Kentucky, Delaware, Colorado, Georgia and every other moderate population center, has not seen a huge plunge in its real estate market.

There is no doubt some home prices are about to drop. But will they ever see the 20% or 40% drops making headlines? I doubt it.

In the average American market, a drop of ten percent or more would be an extreme case. Most likely, thanks to mortgage rates hovering just below 6% and thoughts of the Federal Reserve dropping benchmarks even lower, potential buyers will begin to trickle in on any news of price reductions.

To prove that I think we are quite close to the bottom, I put my own money on the line and purchased a house. The asking price on this particular property has dropped by over fifteen percent since it was originally listed over nine months ago.

Like so many other properties on the market, its selling price could not go any lower or the current homeowner would be upside-down on his mortgage. In other words, he would still owe money on it after he sold it.

There are a lot of properties on the market in a similar situation, especially recently built homes. These “over-mortgaged” homes are helping the market keep from making a dramatic and sudden plunge.

Thanks to this phenomenon, the markets may slow to a crawl, but prices will not plunge.

The real estate market is making a lot of headlines and buyers are sitting on the sidelines. The wait may payoff for a few, but for most of America the bottom is so close the risk of missing out on a cheap dream house may not be worth the possible reward of saving a few bucks on your monthly mortgage payment.

Make a realtor happy and start looking for buying opportunities today.

Source: Real estate bottom: Are we there or is a major drop on the way?