Hottest Places To Invest In 2005

Hello I am new to REI
Please advise on the city with the best potential property value growth. Thank's Happy holidays and good deals to everyone.

Comments(10)

  • robshap21st December, 2004

    Washington DC and the surrounding Metro area is expected to have another tremendous year. Homes appreciated about 20% in 2004 and some predict another 20%. It is due to two factors-jobs and shortage of supply. Wash/DC/Metro area created 70,000 jobs in 2004. Efforts to contain sprawl have led to land use restriction and the preservation of agricultural areas. Ther is simply not enough land to meet the demand for housing. Traffic sucks. Any prpoerty located within easy assess to major roads will do well. This area is a great long term play as well.

  • ceinvests21st December, 2004

    Rob... Where did you read that? Arghghhh.... I just listed my Howard Co. home near I95/Rt.32 for sale, just under 400K. Maybe I should rent it out for a year or two instead. I hate to give away so much quick appreciation but I really need to move on! Decisions. Any thoughts? :-?

  • robshap4th January, 2005

    I believe it was in the real estate section to the Wash Post. It was from a V.P. At Toll Brothers. The end of year Post RE section had all the local RE gurus give their opinion on housing in 05. Almost all very positive. Conservative I'd say they call for 5-8% price appreciation in 05 barring any terrorist acts or unforseen circumstances. Howard County is hot. I work for a builder and will be selling singles in nearby Laurel. Good Luck.

  • povrtsux4th January, 2005

    Hey robshap, then the same would apply for CA, don't you think?
    I think the million dollar question is where is the best place to invest that's still not discovered. The walmart method.

  • dontaskwhy5th January, 2005

    I think CA, or at least San Diego has gone through the initial appreciation. I bought for 320K in 2002 and current comps are $580, over 80% in 2 1/2 years. I am sure that the next couple years will be at least in the teens though as long as there isn't a burst. Interest Rates will play a big part and with appreciation that fast, it is pricing people out of buying (which is good for landlords) Also, for those foreclosure people, a lot of people bought with ARMs and baloons. Keep an eye on the court house here in a couple years.

  • lvaughnr5th January, 2005

    SW Florida lands/homes are appreciating at a remarkable rate also. 15-25% / yr. 8-)

  • regal5th January, 2005

    dontaskwhy-

    R.e. prices are down in the San Diego market and it doesn't look good. Check out http://www.piggington.com for some great graphs and data.

    Be careful not to use data provided by mainstream media and the r.e. industry. The newspapers are dependant on the r.e. industry for the massive advertising dollars they spend.

    For example, in San Diego, the press started using year over year data, when they were using month to month before. One article stated that November was up about 18% over last years November. However, in reality the prices were down for the 4th month in a row.
    It's very misleading.

  • dontaskwhy5th January, 2005

    Regal -

    That is good (bad) reading. I am assuming I have made the most in the least amount of time and therefore I am selling both of my SD properties. Unfortunately, I can't sell both within the same two years and exempt the taxes, so I will hope that the market just levels out. I do believe (pray) that the bubble doesn't burst. But, since 98, I will make almost 300% on my condo (46K selling for 180K) and, if the market stays for two more years 80% on my home (320K selling for 575K) As you can see, even if the market goes down a little, I am well off.

    Another trend that shows the slow down is the amount of time the house are staying on the market. When I bought my house, it was on the market for 4 days and the average time was less than two weeks. People were lining up for the new builds. Now, a resale home is on the market for more than a month.

  • regal5th January, 2005

    dontaskwhy,

    Sounds like you did great. The last 2-3 years were the biggies aorund here.

    Even though I'm in L.A. county, the San Diego data is pretty accurate around here. I noticed that things peaked here in June of this year. As far as hot markets go, I would say on a scale of 1-10, with San Diego being a 10, L.A. is a 9.

    I had a call from a birddog in Orange county recently and when I got on the mls to comp it out, I was stunned at all the houses for sale in the area. I mean WAY too much inventory there. It was a real eye-opener.

    For the 1st week in January, the market here is pretty good. People trying to outsale their neighbors' prices aren't succeeding, but if they price correctly they can get a lot of action.

    I talked to a buddy of mine in Vegas and it's really getting ugly there. All the people blindly buying on spec have really caused problems.

    I'm guessing the market will be pretty good til summer.
    Who knows?

    One thing I do know, is I think it's important to read through the lines with the 'official data' from the board of Realtors, etc. It's like the stock boom when analysts were still saying to buy $200 stocks as they were tanking to 10 cents. It's a real conflict of interest.

    The problem is, if a big agency did says they thought the r.e. party was over, it could really cause a mess.

  • dontaskwhy5th January, 2005

    That is why I am gambling that I will get close to todays FMV in two years. I really fell into the real estate thing. Probably like most, I bought a condo because I needed a place to live. Then got married and needed a house...now, I have kids and we are moving back east (Buffalo area) I will be able to sell both my properties here and buy two multi-units and my house on a couple acres and have it all almost paid off. Once we get settled, I will look into using what I am learning here to start putting my equity to work with more properties.

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