JPL530i

had i jumped into this 5 years ago when my buddy told me to, i'd be a millionaire like him now. oh no, i didn't listen because i was too busy doing retail.

i agree with both VB and you. there are places that are growing incredibly fast. pick up a june money magazine and you'll see why real estate is the best investment. i think so because it's something that's tangible as opposed to something that's not. we all know that the market will crack, but then again, we've said that for the last couple of years, especially here in the northeast region, mainly in new england. from talking to various realtors, houses with high price tag will not sell as quick as they wanna. other than that, i think prices will be steady. then again, i am not a prophet

Winterwaves

I'm in SoCal, where everyone knows the housing prices are insane. It's helped me, though, since I bought my place seven years ago and in that time, its appraised value has tripled.

This website, which I started out just doing for fun, tells me that I should move to Georgia or North/South Carolina.
http://www.findyourspot.com

Hmm...then I actually started looking at listings on http://www.realestate.com in those cities, and holy crap, I could sell my place and buy a HUGE house (we're talking 4 bedroom, 2 bath, family room, game room, basement, outside deck, 2500+ total sq. ft.) in what appears to be, at least from Keyhole satellite data, to be a nice suburb of Georgia, or a house right next to the beach in Carolina, and I could buy it outright. Sometimes with money even left over.

The thought of having no monthly mortgage payment sounds pretty damn inviting...but of course then there are the questions of finding a new job, really studying up on the climate, crime rate, etc., and the fact that once I'd have moved away from SoCal, it'd be REALLY difficult if I ever wanted to come back. At least, unless housing prices crash tremendously -- but SoCal will probably always be higher than the norm anyway.

I love the climate, the abundance of things to do and see, the great diversity of natural surroundings (mountains, desert, forests, etc.), and the beach especially, in SoCal. But of course there are plenty of things about SoCal that I wouldn't mind if I EVER saw again -- crime, gangs, grafitti, general shallowness and rudeness of people (folks seem more genuinely friendly in GA and NC -- and they'll let you merge into traffic), wacko way-far-left extreme leftists, smog, INSANE TRAFFIC (ugh!!), a mega-influx of illegal aliens (no, they're not "undocumented residents" or some other sugar-coated euphemism -- call them what they are -- ILLEGAL), and some other stuff I don't like...

I'm just sort of thinking out loud here...researching this stuff has sort of become my new hobby now, and all because of a little findyourspot survey....

applesplatter

I'm sooo glad I bought a small condo right out of college (two years ago) because if I had to buy a house now I'd be SOL

Winterwaves

No kidding. I feel sorry for young people trying to be homeowners now. Seems like an impossible goal for a lot of them.

SDCGTSX

What do you mean? Real estate was down from 89-96, then started creeping up in 97-99 and then took off like banshee in 2000-2005. I see it staying flat in the next year and then 5% increase in the following few years with slower sales.

zeroday

who are you responding to?

wstevens

This will be fine with me. I bought my townhouse in 2003 at $440,000. The exact unit a few doors down just sold for $650,000. If the "bubble bursting" in my zip code just means that prices level out, I'm fine with that. Afterall, I do get to live in this place, so if the price stays flat, it's not like I'm not still benefiting.

JimmyCarter

6 percent a year? (pre-tax)

There are much better investments than that (granted you can't sleep in them though )

zeroday

fuck it