What do they know that we don't?

The big news in Brookline real estate this week is the purchase of the McCourt estate by John Henry. For those who don't follow these things, Frank McCourt is the owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers and one of the people who lost out to the Henry/Werner ownership team when the Red Sox were last bought. John Henry has made (and lost) billions in commodities trading and other financial ventures prior to his Sox tenure. My question to the world is...if the market is so bad, why is someone with as much financial knowledge as John Henry has buying a 16.5 million dollar property now?

The answer is simple. This is an amazing time to buy because the prices have shown they're not free-falling as predicted, and for now mortgage rates are going down. Not that John Henry is getting a jumbo loan on this house or anything, but still the buying climate is great. Add Henry's decision to the speculation last week that Warren Buffet was considering buying a portion of Countrywide and you're seeing that a lot of very successful and financially powerful people think we might have reached the bottom.

Here we are at Labor Day Weekend, the second "season" for real estate is about to start. Property is still going under agreement, and there is no better time to buy than now.