Lease ends in March.When should I start looking for a place to buy?

oops, sorry I meant the early termination is coming due March 2010 and 2 year contract ends in March 2011.

Continue renting, where you are or elsewhere. RE bottoms are long and low, so you'll have plenty of opportunity to assess your situation and buy during that time.

thanks, ..my concern is that it means spending another $36,000 away and perhaps losing the opportunity to get a low interest loan. once the inflation starts to kick off. Of course I'll only look at places that reflects/ comes close to mostly likely bottom price..(I say most likely, because I don't know what that is, but am thinking of 2000-2003 level prices)

If I were to terminate the lease next year (which I don't know for sure at the moment) when should I start focusing on looking for a place this year?

we began looking in mid-january and will probably be closing by the end of the this month, with about a break of a month when we almost gave up on finding a place. So I'd say about 6 months. From when we first saw our place to close took about 3 months.

i will say that 3k/month for a 1br sounds a little steep.

yeah, this place used to receive $3500/month before they lowered it because the tenants wouldn't renew at that price. It's a new building, great location, large square footage for 1B 1B.

jjun4733, if you're serious about buying a place, I don't know why you're not looking (note that I'm saying looking, not buying) now. A diligent search process takes a LONG time - I looked for over a year, and I'm sure there are plenty of people who have done more. The point is, the more you're informing yourself on what's out there, the better chance you have of finding something that a) suits your needs, b) suits your budget, and c) is or can be "underpriced" relative to the general market. You just have to be conscientious enough not to jump on the first thing that seems like a good deal. Good luck!

I agree with BJW2103. If you are interested to purchase a place over the next year or 2, you should begin the process now.

yeah, okay thanks, I'm just in a process of planning out the rest of the yearin the calendar, I wasn't sure when I should start carving time out to look for a place seriously while trying to make decision on taking on different projects for this summer and the weekends.

I don't want to find a place, tomorrow that I can't refuse and end up carrying mortgage and pay rent on this place too. It was really hard trying to sublease out a place before...don't know if I'm being too wrapped on $6,000+ but just wanted to know how other people typically do this. Information by liulide was very helpful by the way.

I remember wasting a lot of time last year looking for places. and almost felt compelled to make a decision just for the sake of time put into the search. which would have been the wrong decision, as the places I looked at went down in price by 15% ~20% since then.

how much do you figure buying will cost you all in? i'm asking in order to put that possible extra rent in perspective vs. happening to find the right deal.

well, have around $300,000+ for down payment..based on last year's pre-approved number, could afford 1 million+ but of course want to get the best deal as possible, without wasting needless money. looking for an average 1 bedroom...anything over 700 sf would be fine, So am not willing to use all of it. want to put away some money for saving/investment -Have lost a lot of money in the stock market last year.. few thousand dollar still means a lot to me.

jjun4733.....I live in Connecticut and don't plan on buying in the City for 2-4 years. I'm already looking and trying to learn as much as I can about the market, buildings and neighborhoods. I firmly believe that research and learning about the market and the process will help me to make a better decision.

yeah okay, have been going to open houses every now and then, but haven't hired a broker yet..I guess I should get started soon

I'm thinking that if you already know what area you want to live in, you're already a bit ahead than if you were familiarizing yourself with the different areas of NYC. Depending on how much else you'd like to get done this summer, you might wait until Labor Day because, possibly, listings will come online then as people are getting into a more serious mode.

drdrd thanks, I guess that means there are more inventory in the fall after labor day then summer vacation time?

I do know manhattan fairly well. lived in UES, UWS, Midtown (east and west) Tribeca and also worked downtown (now midtown) - been moving pretty much every year. but I bought a lot of expensive furniture (I know it's stupid to buy expensive furniture when you rent but just couldn't stand Ikea after grad school) and after experiencing few of the expensive furniture getting damaged/breaking move after move, I just want to settle down and not have to move again for a while. Funny enough, that is my main motivation for buying a place, of course given that I could find/negotiate a near bottom price..

There's nothing wrong with buying for the sake of having a better standard of living. My wife and i have been looking for 2-3 years and if the right unit and price came along, we'll probably jump on it.

I have been told to expect "closing" to take about 3 months. So if you are looking to move out in March then you'd want to be making offers in January. Then the rest of the question is only something you can answer... how long will it take you to look around and feel comfortable with making an offer then (or deciding to continue renting)??

Good luck with your search!

thanks. everyone has been very helpful

In theory, & in years past, the market picks up after Labor Day. With the current economy we're in uncharted territory so I guess we'll see what happens.

What you want to do yesterday is get a new pre-approval letter so you know where you stand. I'm concerned about you basing your financial planning on a letter from 2008. You don't have to show it to anyone or even tell a broker you have it, but you need to know. You might be in for a rude shock.

I just closed on a house on Monday, in Michigan and it's an investment, so yeah not the same as your situation, but I gotta tell you, we are in a very different banking climate than we were just six months ago.

There is always the fear you will find the perfect place before you're ready to buy, but since you're open to such a large geographic area I wouldn't worry too much about this, I think there are many apartments that would make you blissfully happy. However, the more educated you are, the better position you'll be in to negotiate and get the best possible price on that perfect place.

Best of luck to you, and remember, apartment hunting is supposed to be fun ;)

{Manhattan real estate agent}

Why do so many people seemed to be confused? Inflation = higher interest rates = lower property values...Yes despite rising rents. The interest rate impact is way more powerful.

Inflation = higher interest rates = higher rents = higher asset prices. Only hyper inflation = higher rents but static asset prices.

reading through this thread: did i get this right?

OP bought a bunch of expensive furniture that has been damaged due to repeated moves? so now the answer is to buy a place to store the damaged over expensive furniture?