can you find houses in florida in a good location for 100k? my sister lives in winter springs. she just sold a plain 1200sq ft ranch built in 1970 that she paid 85k for in 98 for 199k. she banked the money and moved into a nice newer apartment for 700 a month.
Not where I live. I doubt if there is a single house for sale in the entire San Francisco Bay Area which could be purchased and rented profitably in today's market. Martin
First off California is skewed. Because of the tax propostion that says that your taxes do not go up while you own the home. No one wants to sell because their taxes have been locked in at old rates. So you have a shortage of turnover, people wanting to move in for weather and jobs. And some houses being rented because people figure if they sell they can never get back in. In 91-93 just coming out of the slow down -- even then you could not find houses where rent covered their mortgages. Unless you purchased in a bad neighborhood and hired an off duty policement to collect your rent. Seriously. I played cards with real estate agents who had put together that little model as part of their wealth accumulation strategy. They had to play slum lord with muscle to find investment property that made sense. I am sure the same goes for just about every other fact, people are reciting right now. Except for the slow down in price appreciation.
maybe the media overplays U.S. consumer debt and downplays the true combined assets of the american people, like all those baby boomers buying retirement homes with CASH in nyc while they cockblock gen x'ers who just hope for a bubble. dunno, seems like the geography with lots of ARMs and interest only's (ie florida and nevada) are the ones with the sicker demographics where clones of lower middle class folks are buying their cloned mini mansions fully equipped with with your own 1 foot boat pier and just a 5 minute drive to the local minimall.
Lots of cash buyers in bradenton and sarasota. lots of boats too. I agree with the other premise though. There is no doubt in my mind that the economists do not undertand how much cash there is this country chasing the prime living areas.