Thursday, February 12, 2009

Buy now, say St. Charles County Realtors

Now is a good–check that–great time to buy a house.

So say real estate leaders in St. Charles County, among the nation’s fastest-growing areas until the housing slump rolled in last year.

Karen Vennard, president of the St. Charles County Association of Realtors, said today that stable house prices and low low mortgage rates mean now is the time for buyers “to make their move.”

“This is a just a great environment to buy a house,” she added.

Vennard was preaching to the choir at a luncheon attended by about 35 real estate agents, builders and lenders. Merle Schneider, head of the association’s PR committee, told the group “there’s plenty of money” from lenders for people with good credit, a job and the ability to make a down payment.

“The bankers and lenders have simply gone back to sensible lending practices,” he said.

Don’t believe gloom-and-doom housing stories in “the media,” Schneider added. Home values rise and value but the trend, over decades, is a steady rise in prices, he said.

To drive home–so to speak–their point that people are still buying houses, the Realtors’ group introduced to the audience Dave and Jennifer Berkbigler, who closed today on a new four-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath home in Wentzville. Dave, 38, who works for Grey Eagle Distributing, and Jennifer, 36, a speech pathologist, are moving west from north St. Louis County.

They declined to disclose how much they paid for their new house but say they got a good deal.

Click to read article from STLtoday.com.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

No comments: