<p>Diane Moca:<br />Inflation is up more than 7% this year compared to last year. Everything costs more money. House prices are up, but rents are up too. So what should people do when it comes to the real estate market? Well, we are joined by Elena Falco, real estate broker. She's got some answers for us. Elena, thanks for joining us. <br /><br />Elena Falco:<br />Thank you for having me.<br /><br />Diane Moca:<br />With prices up everyone's hearing about the market being higher. Should people wait before they buy?<br /><br />Elena Falco:<br />That's a very loaded question. I would say if they keep waiting, it's going to keep going up. In general real estate goes up three to 5% a year over the course of 30 years, and we're seeing it go up drastically.<br /><br />Diane Moca:<br />So how do housing costs compare? I mean, most people figure if they're going to buy a house, their housing, their mortgage, is going to end up being more than rents. <br /><br />Elena Falco:<br />I think a lot of people think that they can't afford to buy when actually, if you buy a home, especially in Aurora, you're going to actually probably save money every month versus renting. So I have found that I've put a lot of first time home buyers, I've gotten them out of the rental and they're able to buy homes that are still relatively affordable and their mortgage is less than their rent would be.<br /><br />Diane Moca:<br />Wow. <br /><br />Elena Falco:<br />Yeah. A lot of people I find are paying $2,000 a month in rents and they can get into a house and they're only paying 1500. They can go in with very little money down, not realizing that three and a half percent, you can do an FHA loan and be a homeowner and start paying for your own house instead of paying for somebody else's<br /><br />Diane Moca:<br />Yeah. Those first time home buyers, are you seeing more of them than usual in terms of people?<br /><br />Elena Falco:<br />I'm actually seeing quite a few first time home buyers.<br /><br />Diane Moca:<br />Yeah.<br /><br />Elena Falco:<br />Yeah.<br /><br />Diane Moca:<br />So they're not getting scared off by prices?<br /><br />Elena Falco:<br />No, they're not. <br /><br />Diane Moca:<br />Or the fact that we're hearing that people have to bid on multiple properties before they actually find one?<br /><br />Elena Falco:<br />Well, I had one buyer last year and they had to bid on, I think, six different houses, but we ended up finding this, the last one was the best. <br /><br />Diane Moca:<br />Okay. I was going to say that can be frustrating and nerve wracking to go through that.<br /><br />Elena Falco:<br />It is, It is. But be prepared for it and hopefully you get a good broker who's patient with you and also knows that time is of the essence. So if you do find that house and you do want to put an offer in and how to write the offer correctly so that you are a strong offer compared to other competing offers.<br /><br />Diane Moca:<br />It seems in the suburbs that there are some areas that are just out of reach to the middle class these days. What about Aurora? Are there still some popular areas that are affordable? What are you seeing?<br /><br />Elena Falco:<br />Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, Aurora has always been pretty affordable and it's still, even after all this increase in our housing this last year, I mean, Aurora went up 11.6% in just one year. <br /><br />Diane Moca:<br />Wow.<br /><br />Elena Falco:<br />Which is a lot. That's taking the average home price from 215,000 up to 240. For your average consumer that's still affordable. If you have a family and you're looking for school systems, there's five different zip codes in Aurora and there's multiple different school systems that you feed into. You have Aurora, you have Naperville and you have Oswego. And it tends to be that parts of Aurora that feed in the Naperville schools or Oswego schools tend to be more sought after and higher priced.<br /><br />Diane Moca:<br />Thank you for joining me, Elena. <br /><br />Elena Falco:<br />Thank you for having me.<br /><br />Diane Moca:<br />And it sounds like if you're thinking about looking for a house, the best thing to do is to know that it might take a little patience, but you can probably find what you're looking for, and it really helps to have someone to help you through that process. So the best thing to do might be to just dive in. For TalkingCities Aurora, I'm Diane Moca.</p>