Answer:
Driving down the road and seeing so many homes in foreclosure and so many more homes for sale or in a short sale can be intimidating if you are thinking of taking steps to buy your first home. Where historically investing in a home was pretty much a sure bet when it came to building equity, nowadays people aren't so sure. Many homeowners are upside down in their payments. It is not at all uncommon to have to sell a home for less and take a loss in the process. If you are trying to sell a home, a bad economy is bad news. But, if you are a buyer, you are in a position to take advantage of a lot of what's going wrong with the economy.

Now can be a great time to make the investment of buying a home, especially if you are able to stay in your home long enough to see home prices balance out and to wait for the economy to recover. More and more entities are making it easier to get well qualified buyers into a home. For example, the government is currently offering several different kinds of first-time home buyer incentives. In the past, incentives were in the form of low or no interest incentives that had to be paid back. But now, the government is practically giving away money to encourage buyers to sign those mortgage papers and start putting their money into a sustainable asset. There are also benefits available to current home owners who have stayed in their homes for at least 5 years (an incentive to keep in mind when looking for houses as it would be to your benefit to purchase a home you plan to spend several years in). In addition to government housing grants, lower home prices and the ability to get more house for your money make buying a home now a great investment that will pay off in the years to come. It is a buyer's market, meaning that the buyer is the one who holds the cards in most cases. You can more easily negotiate to get the price that you want to pay.

So let's play the devil's advocate for just a moment and explore some of the worst case scenarios that you may find yourself in if you do choose to make the investment of buying a home. Assuming that you lost your source of income and all of a sudden find yourself unable to make your mortgage payments, you are not without options. There are programs available that are designed to help homeowners avoid foreclosure or even bankruptcy. So while you should not plan on using these programs, they do provide a certain degree of peace of mind if you are still nervous about buying your own home. It is still best to make sure that you are going to be able to afford the home that you are looking into buying (but this suggestion applies regardless of what the economy is doing).

Most experts agree that investing now will mean benefiting later. If you are well-qualified, you stand to benefit from the struggling economy in the long run. Lower interest rates are making home purchases possible for those who before may not have been able to afford the home that meets their needs. By making wise financial choices now (i.e. managing credit, saving for a down payment, etc.) you stand to benefit from making the investment of buying a home in a down economy. As far as investments go, a home purchase may be one of the smartest and most rewarding financial decisions you can make. Not only does buying a home make good financial sense but it also provides you with a place that you can call your own and that feeling is priceless.