May, 2008 Selected Cities Real Estate % Appreciation Trends Report
June 1st, 2008 Categories: National and Local Real Estate Appreciation Forecast
Changes are happening. A review of the latest OFHEO (Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight) report listed the following cities as the highest ranking but not necessarily the best investment areas. The general areas are:
- Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux, LA
- Grand Jucntion, CO
- Wenatchee, WA
- Autstin-Round Rock, TX
- Billings, MT
- Provo-Orem, Utah
- Anderson, SC
- Mobile, AL
- Ogden-Clearfield, UT
- Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC
When viewing Quarterly Changes To United States Real Estate Landscape and coupling it with the list of cities noted in the table below it is evident that the real estate landscape has changed.
For real estate investments, dollar for dollar the areas to consider are Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Texas (although it appears that this State may be starting to change downward) and Michigan (this State appears to be coming out of a depressed state and it appears now on an upward change).
If push came to shove and I was told I could only select one area to invest in, at this time it would be Oklahoma. Michigan is becoming a very interesting area but I would wait for about a year. Keep an eye on Michigan.
Oklahoma is selected because of the increasing job market, real estate taxes are reasonable, single family home prices are relatively low, and based on current rents the opportunity exists for a monthly positive cash flow.
There are a number of people that feel Idaho and Wyoming are the places to be so it becomes a personal preference. Properties in these area tend to be higher in price (5 to 20%) and with the higher down-payment money needed because the price variance, monthly cash flow could be a problem especially if home owner association dues are added.
Read the article How To Invest In Real Estate for added insights one should consider prior to investing in any location.
Specific cities which I track and their 12, 24 and 36 months projected trends are:
Restricting one view to California it appears that San Luis Obispo and Ventura are the areas with the greatest prospects for appreciation, followed closely by Santa Maria and Santa Barbara.
On the national scale Hawaii appears not to favor investors for the next several years.
Data for the above charts was derived from Ed’s Forecast.
Your comments to this article are welcomed.
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