I’m reading through the daily news updates I get from various real estate, financial, and economic publications and research sources – I get so many now I don’t always have a chance to read them all (or any!) One article asks whether Canadian real estate is experiencing a bubble (you may laugh, but up in the oil drilling areas of Alberta, house prices are doubling and tripling, and there are so many people moving in that babysitters are charging over $100/hour – I heard this from a research newsletter).
If I could own any real estate, I would consider the following: affordable apartments for college grads in lower cost cities, retirement communities, and luxury housing for rich international students. I would probably buy other types of property if I could get it way below MY assessed value. Right now, the direction for prices is down, and that would probably mean rents go way up (if you can’t by you gotta rent!)
I saw an interesting piece earlier today on short sales – people buying houses directly from the bank before they foreclose for a fraction of the mortgage – the bank takes the loss but gets the asset off the books and keeps their “foreclosures” or “real estate owned” statistics (2 UGLY statistics for a bank ) very low! I see more and more of this – I will soon have a blog/resource site discussing all facets of real estate planning – downsizing, choosing places to live, research of various cities, and communities. I will also have special reports for downsizers, transitioners, and retirees.
Where do you think the real estate market is going? I have my opinion which you most likely can’t change but thankfully, even the most pollyanna real estate people sound glum – thank God – they were blowing so much smoke up people’s you know what…anyway, prices can drop further than anyone dreamed…as wonderful as it was to see prices leap, watch how fast they can keep falling when you have ZERO buyers and millions of sellers. The fact that real estate is local, will really start to hurt in the near future because some people will wish they could move their house to China and sell it…or even Arizona…
Chris Grande
editor note: check out this article on why only fools pay their mortgages in Philly
