Smart real estate investments

Posted by Tad Johnson - Apr 23rd, 2008 at 19:04

Thinking about buying your first home? Be careful where you buy. As we’ve already seen, future home price appreciation (and depreciation) will vary greatly depending on location. With gasoline prices rising and no relief in site, distance from the city center is becoming a crucial determinant for home prices.

For years, home size and features (like 1/4 acre yards) drove home prices. Suburban mansions popped up all over the country in cheap converted farmland. With an ever-expanding highway system and cheap gas, many thought this was a great deal.

Now that’s all changing. With environmental and economic factors pointing home buyers toward the city, suburbs are diminishing in value. But don’t take my word for it, read on below.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89803663

Home Prices Drop Most in Areas with Long Commute : NPR via kwout

4 Comments »

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  1. Notice it said MOST. Not happening in the Puget Sound area. Prices are still sky high. There are radio commercials for places in the “mid 700s” as if those were really bargains. Even an hour and a half away from Seattle, prices are still in the mid-300s.

    Comment by jrandom42 — April 24, 2008 #

  2. Give it time. This trend will spread. Or your money back.

    Comment by Tad Johnson — April 24, 2008 #

  3. Okay, prices just dropped a whole 1.3% from this time last year as opposed to 13.3% nationwide. It’s spreading, but at this rate, the depression will be long over before the Puget Sound area comes into line with the rest of the nation.

    Seattle has two big drivers of the local economy. Technology and aerospace. Boeing and the myriad of small companies that feed them are going to be manufacturing their buns off for years, even if half the 787 orders manage to get cancelled. Microsoft, Amazon, Nintendo America, CostCo and all the tributaries and the spinoffs will keep chugging along, churning out technology. The result is a pretty strong local economy, when the rest of the nation is tanking. I don’t see these trends reversing anytime soon, so there will still be lots of people making good money, and paying a premium for housing in the foreseeable future.

    So where’s my money? :)

    Comment by jrandom42 — April 29, 2008 #

  4. […] On the subject of real estate, and the falling suburb house prices, jrandom42 added this:   ”Notice it said MOST. Not […]

    Pingback by thevicenarian.com » Meta Post : 5 great comments — May 17, 2008 #

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