Living in the Phoenix Metro area, I’ve had a front-row seat at the “Greatest Real Estate Show on Earth” over the past 6 years. I watched prices rise spectacularly, saw people throw their money down on the housing craps table, marveled at many of my friends and acquaintances in unrelated jobs take up the professional of real estate agent. I heard so many people say during the craziness years that “there is no way prices are going to come down, they will just level off.” If only.
According to the Arizona State University – Repeat Sales Index (ASU-RSI) report issued by the WP Carey School of Business in August of 2008, home prices in some areas dropped as much as 36.3 percent. Wow.
About a month ago, a friend of mine who is a realtor with 20+ years of experience dropped by and insisted that I take a look at a home which had recently come up on the market. The price? $33,000. So was this home trashed out in a terrible neighborhood. No, it was a cute 2 bed/1 bath 1100 sq ft home in a historic district in Phoenix. All it needed was a new A/C and some paint. Two years ago, the house would have been priced at $200,000. The first thought in my head was to place a bid on it. (Which I did, but was outbid. I never did find out the price for which it sold.)
Ladies and Gentlemen, if the bottom of the real estate market is not here, it’s around the corner. I recently read an article on MarketWatch which agrees with my assessment, and is urging its readers to put all available cash into rental properties. Don’t think you have the cash? Here’s a couple of ideas:
- Did you know that you can buy investment property using a Self Directed IRA? We discuss in depth how to open a Self-Directed IRA here.
- Pool funds with family and friends. You never know how much available cash people may have, even in times like these. With prices so low, you might have enough to buy something.
- Keep scouring the market for bank repos. You never know when one like my $33,000 bargain will come up again.
- Buy property in depressed markets. Ok, what markets aren’t depressed you might ask? But there are obviously some markets more than others. For example, did you know the average home price in Detroit is now $7500?
Yes, our advice probably seems crazy, but there are some fantastic bargains out there. Go out and stimulate the economy!
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Nice information. Thanks.
Yes, Real Estate is Bottom Here so buy now its very profitable in future because right now the Real Estate is go down so buy it and after that in future whenever it goes high just sale it and get the very high profit..
In today’s economic climate, I’ve been considering rolling some cash into real estate investments. After all, what I could save from the stock market decline is really important to me. In researching real estate investment information and instructional stuff, I was getting very frustrated with the huge promises being made, and the get-rich-quick bent of many of the websites and books.
Thank goodness I found http://www.infomercialscams.com, as it has helped immensely in sorting through the hype to get to the truly valuable real estate investment information I need. One very clear example is material I was reading from http://www.infomercialscams.com/defenses/john_alexander_real_estate. This scam-revealing site helped me to see the problems with John Alexander’s Foreclosure Fortunes material, and how I’d be better off leaving it alone.
No, no, there is one more wave coming this year. I know. Most homeowners bought at the end of 2005 and beginning of 2006.
Most need to dump their property before the Foreclosure and Short sale moratorium expires in 2010…expect more people.
Why get rid of it later and pay $100,000+ in taxes? no way, they will let it go sooner…expect more.