Home Prices: 5 Questions You Must Ask Before Buying a U.S. Home

Talk about a dilemma for prospective U.S. home buyers -- although home mortgage rates continue to decline -- the average, 30-year fixed rate fell to an average rate of 4.04 percent this week, down from 4.07 percent last week, according to bankrate.com -- home values remain tricky to predict depending on where you're looking.

Moreover, in China, the word for crisis is also used for opportunity and with the aforementioned in mind, the U.S. housing sector certainly qualifies as an opportunity, but it's one that prospective home buyers must research carefully.

What should prospective U.S. home buyers do?

As a preface, it's relevant to point out that very few rules will stop a couple or someone who has found their dream house.

Hence, if you've found it, and you feel you're going to be in the house for more than a decade, the market conditions and cautions listed here aren't likely to stop you from purchasing it.

However, for those who haven't identified their dream house, keep in mind the following:

1-The mantra now isn't how much house you can afford, but the minimum amount of house you need. True, if the market suddenly recovers, that $500,000 luxury home could appreciate into a $700,000 bonanza. However, if your local market stagnates, that luxury home could be valued at $450,000 - or even less - in real terms, which means you'll struggle to recoup your initial investment. Lesson: Take on only as much how as you need, to minimize your risk.

2-Have you researched and evaluated the local economy of the town, city, or county your prospective home is in? In politics, there's an axiom: All politics is local. The same can be said with real estate. If the local economy is strong and likely to experience job growth, the value of your home will benefit. The reverse is also true.

Hence, research the locally economy carefully. Determine what the major industries are and their prospects. Are they likely to add employees in the next five to seven years or more likely to shed employees?

Of course, it's almost impossible to predict macroeconomic conditions 10 years out, but you get the idea: based on what you know about the local employers, does the local economy have decent prospects for growth? In other words, does the local economy look more like Boston, where the prospects for growth are decent? Or like Detroit, where the local economy isn't as strong?

3-Have you bought the best house or almost the best house in the neighborhood? In today's housing market, you have to get everything right, from a home purchase research standpoint. And one key research item is the value of your home vis-à-vis those on its street and in your potential new neighborhood. That's because a sub-par neighborhood can decrease the value of your pricey home...and also make it harder to sell. Ideally, you want a house that is roughly in the middle, value-wise.

Lesson: After you've identified a prospective home, evaluate two houses to the left, two houses to the right, and a few across the street: if most are in worse condition than the one you're considering, skip it, and evaluate another house in a different neighborhood.

4-Did you factor-in another oil shock into your commuting budget? True, oil prices have dipped slightly in recent weeks, to about $80.00 per barrel, pushing the average U.S. price for regular unleaded gasoline down to about $3.43 per gallon. Hence, for now $5 per gallon gasoline is out of the picture. But what about 2012, 2013 and beyond? Further, a $7 or $8 per gallon gas price is possible in the U.S. -- particularly if the nation's supply of oil from the Middle East is disrupted for a sustained period.

Lesson: Stress test your commute. If the commute budget from your prospective house can't tolerate $8 per gasoline, consider a house that's closer to work and/or near a mass transit system.

5-Did you assess your, or if two people are working in the household, each person's ability to shift to a second career, if required?

If you're thinking about buying a home, odds are you're pretty secure and/or established in your job/career field. However, in the globalization era, most citizens realize that economic conditions can change relatively quickly, and healthy sectors can become not-so-healthy in a hurry. Or as professional recruiters say these days, In the globalization era, everyone has to have two fields.

Hence, in the town/city/county you've chosen to buy a home, evaluate how quickly you could switch to a second line of work, if your first field experiences an unexpected downsizing. Does your second field's work exist within a commutable range of your prospective new home? If not, you may want to consider a home that would allow an easier transition to a second field.

Housing Analysis: The Great Recession and the changes triggered by globalization have removed much of the economic tailwind from the U.S. housing sector -- realities that have made it much harder to realize home price gains.

Hence, it goes without saying that thorough due diligence is required when considering a home purchase today, and the above five factors represent a good start.