The below article was taken from The Atlanta Jewish Times website. The top part of the article "New year, new real estate landscape" also appeared in The Atlanta Jewish Times - 85th Anniversary Edition, published on December 31, 2010 and written by staff writer John McCurdy. 

New year, new real estate landscape

A certain couple of Realtors are ready to say that now is the absolute best time to buy a house, and they have the numbers to back that up: The Housing Affordability Index is at its lowest since the concept’s inception in 1971.

“You’ve got the best prices, low interest rates – and they’re expected to stay low, under 5 percent throughout 2011, based on the reports we’ve read so far – and payroll employment is actually going up, so you’re seeing the perfect trifecta for people to buy,” Keith Silberman said, noting each of the three factors that goes into calculating the figure.

Still, he and his “other half” (both in business and in life), Lauren, don’t expect folks to move based on a number alone. The two are quite willing to explain in further detail just why early 2011 looks to be an opportune period for those looking to purchase.

As has been the case for a good two years or so, homes are selling at prices far below their value, and this means taking a hit if getting a new place requires selling the old like it so often does. It’s the money saved on the other end, however, that can turn red to black quite quickly.

“We’ve had buyers that bought properties at about 60 percent,” Lauren said, citing an example of a home that sold at $1.04 million in 2007 that recently went for $580,000. “The key depends on your goals and whether you’re able to afford to sell right now; if you’re in [that position], I don’t think you can beat the timing.”

The Silberman’s aren’t ready to predict widespread recovery – “We’re not economists,” Keith said with a laugh – but they can cite Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the National Association of Realtors when claiming that, after a flat period to begin the new year, the market in general will begin to get gradually healthier. That translates to an increasingly better outlook for sellers, as consumers gain back some of the confidence they once had.

Of course, any rise in prices will be accompanied by an equal if not greater bump in interest rates, which brings the focus back to the here and now for buyers. As stated before, every shopper’s circumstances will differ, but there are several common examples of situations that mean a move could make sense.

“There are a lot of baby boomers who have their homes paid off, and their psyche is, ‘This was my nest egg,’” Keith said. “They’re thinking they can’t sell at this price, that they need to wait, wait, wait, and they’re getting in this stuck mode.”

What such a person wouldn’t be taking into account is, again, the cash they could “pocket” when they’re the one choosing an abode. Getting more house for less money is easier than ever, and that’s true when looking to move up, down or laterally.

Lauren has another instance supporting these contentions, this one not involving seven figures. Given a couple moving to a less-expensive house, say from a $430,000 home to one valued at $310,000, they gain $120,000 towards offsetting what they lost on the sale of their previous residence while enjoying the benefits of lower payments and taxes.

“We strongly encourage people that are in that they can sell and [absorb the hit from the sale] to do so,” Lauren said. “I personally think that interest rates are going to rise faster than prices are going to rise, so if you can take advantage of the interest rates as they are, now is the time to do it.”

It remains to be seen if the experts’ forecasts will turn out on-point, one thing’s for sure: Numbers don’t lie.

Meet the Silbermans

One of the first things Keith and Lauren Silberman did together as an engaged couple was build a website for their wedding. This was at the beginning of the decade, when web design was even more of a challenge than today, but the process really went swimmingly: Keith laid out the visual framework, Lauren filled in the content, and the two filled in any gaps together.

“We just work so well together,” Keith, born and raised in New York, said with a smile. “Everything we’ve done seems to have been better together.”

While both were exposed to the real estate world in their youth, neither could have foreseen their current path. Through and a bit past college, they seemed to be headed in different directions: Keith was an exercise science major at the University of Florida and then worked as an IT consultant, while Lauren obtained her degree in communications from the University of Pennsylvania and worked several desk jobs before their relationship and subsequent partnership began.

“I don’t know that there was that much discussion about it, particularly,” Lauren, an Atlanta native, said with a laugh of their start in the business, which was on the investing and renovating side of things. “It just sort of happened, ran its natural course. Even both of us becoming agents, that wasn’t in the original plan.”

Keith, whose father had been in commercial real estate, knew a few basics and introduced Lauren to the concept of buying a property, improving it and reselling at a profit shortly after the couple’s marriage. They then took classes together and Lauren began testing the waters while Keith continued his career in IT.

By 2003, it was apparent Lauren had a knack for the industry, so Keith felt comfortable leaving his desk job and joining her full-time. What followed were the invaluable years of experiential learning, which both look back on with a smile.

“We took some investing courses, learned 100 different ways to buy properties, and decided we wanted to try every single one out,” Keith joked. “We had some that turned out extremely well and others less so, but luckily we were pretty successful from the get-go.”

One episode taught them that they’d rather represent themselves when selling, so Lauren went about obtaining her license in ’05 and Keith did the same in late ’06. They were like sponges the way they soaked up knowledge about their new field, and the network of contacts they created made the duo a tremendous resource for an individual at any stage of the moving process.

It might just be that willingness to learn and adapt that has allowed the Silberman team to not just survive but thrive through the housing market’s roughest period: The two actually had their best six-month period ever from June to October of 2009. And there’s been no slowing down in 2010, begging the question: Who would have known such disparate backgrounds would result in a powerhouse real estate team?

Looking back, that wedding website might have been a sign of things to come.