First Time Home Buyers who bought a house in the past year can expect their investments to soon be worth more. The article below from Century 21 Real Estate discusses first time homebuyers and what they think about the current market.

More than 48 percent of first-time buyers expect home prices to increase by this time next year, according to a survey by Century 21 Real Estate.

The survey posed questions to people who had bought or sold a home in the last year.

Sixty percent of first-time home buyers say they didn’t understand the process of buying a home, and more than 85 percent of both first-time buyers and sellers said that using a real estate professional was important.

The top three skills valued in a real estate professional by both buyers and sellers were knowledge of the area, trustworthiness, and responsiveness.

More than 80 percent of buyers believe now is a good time to buy a home. First-time home buyers rated these three factors as the most influential in their decision:

Current housing prices: 66 percent
Home Buyer tax credit: 63 percent
Low loan rates: 60 percent

In choosing a home, 95 percent of first-time home buyers thought price was the most important consideration, but 90 percent were also very concerned about neighborhood safety.

About 54 percent of first-time sellers think home prices are more affordable now than they were this time last year, and 50 percent were selling because they were purchasing a property they saw as more attractive and better suited to their needs.