Is it timing the market? Or is it time in the market? They are the two questions.
Is now the best time to buy property? So I’m going to give you context for that decision, and I’m going to show you the difference, show you how people who understand property and how property works, how they make that type of decision.
The median property price in 1970 with $18,700 – the median property price in 1980 was $76,500. That’s a full 109% increase from 1970 to 1980.
In 1990 that price went up to $184,000 – that’s a 241% increase. Anyone noticing a trend?
From 1990, it was $184,000 and it went up to $312,000 in the year 2000. It was 169% increase in that 10 year period.
From the year 2000-2010 it went from $312,000 to $575,000. That’s an 85% increase, and you know what they said in 2010? Property prices are going to fall, the market is going to crash, it can’t keep going up, and guess what happened?
It went from $575,000 in 2010 to $1.6 million in 2021. In an 11 year period, it went up by 278%. Now, did it go up in a straight line? No, definitely not. That’s what I want us all to understand here, it’s not a straight line. What we’re talking about is property going up overtime – there’s going to be ups and downs along the way – but at the end destination it’s going to be higher.
At every one of those points in time, people said property was expensive, property prices were going to go down and it couldn’t keep happening. Everybody has said that, over and over and over again.
Let’s have a look at what happens next. Property values in Sydney are forecasted to have a medium price, by 2050, of $6.4 million. That’s a 402% increase.
People who don’t understand property worry about small price fluctuations over the short term; people who understand the property market are in the market forever.
Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos once asked Warren Buffett, he goes, “You’re the second richest guy in the world, your investment thesis – strategy – is so simple. Why don’t more people just copy you?”
To which Buffett replied “…because nobody wants to get rich slow.”
Timing the market is that desire to buy at the perfect time. There are so many people who are concerned and they say, “Well, I don’t wanna buy now.” They are scared if they buy now, the market will go down.
Let me share with you this. From the 2007-2008 there’s a 5% drop in value, but from 2008-2018 there’s a 70% increase. Whether you bought in 2007 or 2008, you win. The time when you lose in property is if you buy now and you sell just a few years later. Why would you sell, because all it’s going down and you get concerned or worried? You get emotional.
Patience, discipline, the longview and most importantly, time in the market. Buy your property and hold onto it, then allow the market to do the heavy lifting, to push the property up. That’s the TMAP way.
The best time to buy was 20 years ago, the next best time is now.