I have liquid assets, because I sold my San Diego house. I am totally afraid of buying real estate anywhere in this country, becaue of the loose lending, which has caused buyers nationwide to overextend themselves. This is causing foreclosures to rise nationwide, and prices will drop. What city is immune from this problem? Not Texas, not Nebraska…
I am in CDs, but want to put some money in hard assets, like 5% gold, 10% oil stocks… I am reading a book about peak oil, and I believe we are at peak oil, and that it could easily go to $200/barrel. Wouldn’t an oil investment be a good money maker? I haven’t finished the book yet, but will summarize it by tomorrow on this site.
Before you invest in real estate, I would verify that the local prices are a historical median multiple of wages, that months supply is less than 3, HAI (housing affordability index) is at the historic median, that very few exotic loans were made, that there has not been major appreciation yet, and that the area will have the types and number of jobs to weather the recession. By the latter, I mean an economy not dependent on construction, realtors, lending, retail, tourism, restaurants, as San Diego. SD’s economy is not diversified at all, and many here will lose their jobs when the next recession comes along, and when we can no longer make money buying and selling homes to each other.
So I remain interested: does any city in this country meet this criteria? I do not know of any, but it could exist.
