Buy now or wait for the perfect home?

WHAT YOU SHOULD HOLD OUT FOR AND WHERE IT’S OK TO COMPROMISE

Young adults are buying homes again, or at least thinking about it.

A recent Harris-Trulia poll finds that 86 percent of millennials plan on buying, but most not right away — aiming for some time over the next two years.

Even with waiting to keep building savings, they expect to sacrifice on the type of home or neighborhood they ideally want.

Here, experts weigh in on the wisdom of waiting, or buying a “good enough” home:

1. Are you sure you won’t move soon?

Moving within five years after buying could be a money-losing proposition, because there are such high transaction costs, like real estate agent commissions and mortgage fees, notes Peter Lazaroff of Plancorp Financial Services.

It may be at least seven years before you can sell, pay off the mortgage and sales fees and walk away with more than you put in the down payment, Lazaroff adds. “With a 30-year mortgage, most of what you pay each month is interested,” he explains. So, unless there’s good price appreciation in your neighborhood, you won’t see much profit.

2. Are you flexible about your priorities?

Make a priority list of features you want in a home, then visit lots of open houses, even those “you don’t think you’ll be interested in,” advises Kate Ziegler, an agent with Arborview Realty in Boston. Re-examine your priorities frequently. You may find there are affordable, acceptable choices that you wouldn’t have considered before investigating, she says.

3. What will make you happy?

“There’s a lot of pressure on younger people to buy because that’s what you ‘should’ do,” says financial planner Eric Roberge.

But it isn’t smart if you’re only buying because you think it’s an investment, he cautions. Roberge agrees with Lazaroff that profits from homeownership are uncertain. As with other purchase decisions, buy only if it’s a high priority desire. “Make sure you truly want to put down roots and maintain a home of your own,” he concludes.