America is a nation on the move. The Census Bureau says 35.9 million of us picked-up and went somewhere else in 2013, almost 12% of the entire population.
We move because of such things as jobs, climate, family and schools but there’s another reason as well: A good move can be worth $1 million and maybe more.
Sometimes the grass truly is greener on the other side of the fence. The financial turmoil of the past few years certainly lends credence to that notion, as the Great Recession’s disproportionate impact on local economies spawned a 24-point unemployment rate difference between the most and least bountiful major U.S. cities.
More than 100 million people have moved within the past five years, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, and 48% of unemployed individuals have picked up their roots in search of a job over that time-frame. This societal mobility stands to be a major asset for job seekers as the economy improves. In fact, 2014 is expected to be a strong year for hiring, with 27% of employers planning to hire, according to the National Association for Business Economics, and a projected 8% bump in the number of recent college graduates who land jobs, per the National Association for Colleges and Employers.
When most of us think of investments we think of the stock market, maybe our retirement fund, and maybe that “business opportunity” last year with a colleague. It is easy to describe investments one-dimensionally; something we invest money in today that we intend to sell for a larger sum years later.
Investment real estate however builds wealth simultaneously four ways:
Single-family homes now comprise 35% of all rentals and 11% of all households.
What's driving demand?
From 2005 to 2012, single-family rental homes grew 1.7% per year, primarily due to:
Low Confidence: Many households do not yet have the confidence to purchase, knowing that they could lose their job or be required to relocate.
Low Affordability: Many households cannot afford to purchase a home due to bad credit, loan documentation issues, high levels of debt, and home prices now being out of reach.
A lot of people ask, “When should I buy? What part of the real estate cycle should I buy in? Should I buy in a down market? Are the values going to keep going down? When should I buy and where is the cycle right now in my area?”
But these are the wrong questions – it’s not “WHEN should I buy?” You should always buy NOW.
I've said this when the market was good and I've said it when the market was down. The real question is “WHERE and WHAT should I buy?”
This article is Part 4 of a four-part series on Land Trusts. You can find Part 1 here: Understanding Land Trusts
In the previous installment of the Understanding Land Trusts series, we discussed the Due-on-Sale Clause and how the land trust benefits you. In this part we will discuss various strategies to keep your land trust involvement private.
Constructing a Land Trust for Privacy
[Read more…]
Before I break down the risks of investing, one of the most important things you need to look at is; what is the risk of not investing?
Whether in businesses, real estate, stocks or mutual funds – what's the risk of not investing your cash?
What is the risk of just putting it under the mattress and saving your money, or putting it into a bank account that makes a tiny interest rate every month – what are those risks?
Incomes are dropping. And that’s not good for the real estate industry, nor is it good news for the American Dream of home-ownership. More Americans view themselves as slipping out of the middle class according to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center.
The trend began in the 1970s, Pew claims, but it has accelerated since the Great Recession. In the past five years, the percentage of Americans who consider themselves middle class has fallen sharply, dropping from 44% in the latest survey from 53% in 2008. 40% now identify as either lower-middle or lower class compared with just 25% in February 2008.
Money may not buy love, but it appears to buy years.
Economist Barry Bosworth at the Brookings Institution crunched the numbers and found that the richer you are, the longer you’ll live. And it’s a gap that is widening, particularly among women.
Mr. Bosworth parsed this data from the University of Michigan’s Health and Retirement Study, a survey that tracks the health and work-life of 26,000 Americans as they age and retire. It is especially valuable as it tracks the same individuals every two years in what’s known as a longitudinal study, to see how their lives unfold.
Housing is local again! Our partners, consultants and clients see vastly different housing markets all across the country. I categorize them into three groups (booming, busting, and muddling) in this article and provide anecdotes from our team members — but it is really more complicated than that.
I find three primary reasons that certain housing markets are booming:
[Read more…]
