Donald Trump: Why Now Is The Best Time Ever to Buy a House
Real estate mogul Donald Trump has some advice for you: buy a house.
Despite the continued weakness in the U.S. housing market, now is the best time ever to buy a house, says Trump who sat down with The Daily Ticker's Aaron Task to discuss the state of both residential and commercial real estate.
But there is a caveat.
"This time is a great time to buy a house, but only if it is owned by a bank," says Trump. "If a bank already owns a house, they are dying to get rid of it and they will give you all the loan you want because they have to get rid of those houses."
He's referring the huge number of foreclosed homes banks now have on their balance sheets.
Foreclosure filings for the third quarter of 2011 were up 1% or 610,337 from the previous quarter and down 34% from the third quarter of 2010, reports RealtyTrac. And September filings were down 6% from August and down 38% from September 2010.
But this does not mean the foreclosure problem is improving and here's why:
"U.S. foreclosure activity has been mired down since October of last year, when the robo-signing controversy sparked a flurry of investigations into lender foreclosure procedures and paperwork," said James Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. "While foreclosure activity in September and the third quarter continued to register well below levels from a year ago, there is evidence that this temporary downward trend is about to change direction, with foreclosure activity slowly beginning to ramp back up.
With the potential for far more foreclosures properties to hit the market in the months to come, Trump says, the opportunity to buy a house—a bank-owned home—is only going to improve.
And watch the interview to hear why he does not believe commercial real estate is the next shoe to drop.
For more from The Daily Ticker's interview with Donald Trump, see:
Trump: Occupy Wall Street Indication "There Is Something Wrong With This Country"
