Quote from ACM Trader:
Yes, it is very articulated. But, like the stock market, where individual stocks can behave contra-trend of the overall market, I also believe that there will be discrepancies within the housing market, by State, by range of house price, etc..Here in Utah, the Real Estate is still doing good, with some price catch-up with the rest of the nation.
But we will see. I learned a long time ago that even very well articulated opinions, are just, well, ....opinions.
That's true. And you could still find amazing deals, even in the worst market in the worst areas for many reasons. Just like in the worst bear market, you can find stocks on a straight climb up. We're not talking about 1 item, but a trend.
If you know that in a given zip code, there are 20,000 homes on the market for example, where 'normally' there's 500, buying in that market and hoping to resell within 5 years is tough. You already know you can't rent it for enough to cover costs, because prices have gone up that much over that same time making even 20% down mortgage payments too high (not to mention that the other 20,000 for sales are thinking the same thing and compete on rental prices).
Our area has held it's values pretty well over the last year too... even tho the inventory in our zipcode went from 77 homes 2 years ago, to 18,900 today (no kidding). But people aren't desperate enough to drop prices.... yet.
I just went to Miami over Thanksgiving, and I'm told it's slaughter. Entire unfinished condo buildings on the waterfront are selling as blocks. They look like bargains... til you realize the glut on the market and your carrying costs for holding unsold units for possibly years. Again, that's a different market, and yours may be doing well.
Real estate is a far more regional investment than the stock market. If you didn't have investors driving up prices for the last 5-10 years, it probably didn't change much for you at all. I looked at some land prices in Montana the other day... omg cheap.
On the other hand, from an investment standpoint... how much appreciation can you expect (dunno about Utah, but Montana has that law that doesn't allow much of the land to be broken up to smaller parcels for sale), while you pay your annual property taxes, which can go up every year?
Utah is close to Phoenix, Az... go check out what happened to their market. I don't live there, and it's not my opinion what happened to the prices.