Are You Missing the Real Estate Boom? author David Lereah, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, asks. We are experiencing a historic wealth-building opportunity. To ensure that your don't miss out, Lereah provides the tools, information, and analysis you need to become a savvy real estate investor. And he shows how to integrate real estate into your overall investment strategies and financial planning goals. Among the information you'll find in the book:
How to become a master at dealing with real estate agents, brokers, and lenders. Which home improvements will result in the greatest long-term gains. How to identify the vacation homes and regions that will increase the most in value. How to finance a first-time home--with or without a big down payment.
Why will the real estate boom continue into the next decade? Low interest rates are part of the story. Although mortgage rates have notched up slightly over the last year, they still remain historically very low. Technological advances from online real estate listings to automated underwriting to an explosion of financing options have reduced home ownership costs and simplified the process of buying and selling. Continued high demand from baby-boomers buying larger homes, second homes, and retirement homes, and a new wave of immigrants and "echo" boomers buying first homes, ensure that the boom will continue into the next decade.
The long-term fundamentals for housing remain strong into the foreseeable future, claims Lereah. Far from a real estate "bubble," what we are experiencing today is a phenomenon that takes place only once every other generation: a long-term real estate market expansion.
Isn't it time you started taking advantage of it today?
Are you missing the real estate boom? Can you increase your wealth from it? For most people--including current homeowners--the answer is a resounding yes. But it's not too late to increase your stake in the greatest real estate boom of our generation. Whether you are a first-time buyer or already own your home, Are You Missing the Real Estate Boom? will show you how you can dramatically increase your overall wealth. Author David Lereah, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, shows why the real estate market is poised to climb higher over the next decade--and explains what you can do to profit from it. Lereah calls today's market a "once-in-every-other generation opportunity." Today's boom is not just driven by low interest rates--there are a host of demographic and economic reasons why real estate will continue to outpace other investments, from the growing needs of the baby-boomer generation and the rise of the "echo" boomer generation to the new ways real estate is marketed and sold. Are you a first-time buyer? A current homeowner considering whether or not to trade up? There has never been a better time to do so, Lereah convincingly claims. In Are You Missing the Real Estate Boom?, Lereah explains what to look for when you're buying a home; which improvements add the most value to your current home; what to consider when purchasing rental properties; how to evaluate real estate investment trusts (or REITs); and the pros and cons of second homes. Full of detailed information on how to work with a real estate agent and a mortgage lender, how to analyze local markets and regional fluctuations, and how to best finance your investment, Are You Missing the Real Estate Boom? offers readers the seasoned advice they need to invest with confidence and reap outsized rewards.
Today's residential real estate markets are booming, and I and many other prominent housing economists believe they will most likely climb into the next decade. Some in the media and elsewhere claim there is a housing bubble, and that it will eventually burst, similar to the stock market bubble debacle in 2000. As I demonstrate throughout this book, their reasoning is flawed, a point I have driven home time and again on major business television net-works like CNBC and CNN in recent years. Nonetheless, each year the naysayers come back sounding further alarms. Fortunately, given the reaction from the marketplace, few are paying attention.
I am not suggesting that real estate prices will post double-digit growth as they have in so many of our nation's local housing markets the past several years. That is not a healthy market situation in the long run. Demand for homes needs to come more into balance with the supply of homes. The frenzied local real estate markets with 20 to30 percent price appreciation over a couple of years' time, and with multiple bids on a house that result in a sale price significantly higher than the price for which the house is listed, is neither sustainable nor desirable. One should not equate the word "boom" with this kind of frenzied market environment. Simply stated, a real estate boom is a healthy real estate expansion. And for a variety of compelling reasons I outline in this book, this healthy expansion has endured for about thirteen years and promises to continue into the next decade. Do not think that a slowing in price appreciation (from double digits) signals the demise of the real estate boom. The fact is that residential home sales could even have a down year without indicating an end to the boom. You can't post a record-setting performance year in and year out. From10,000 feet in the air, a one-year dip is just a blip in the long-term expansion path. Stick with real estate investing for the remainder of this decade and into the next, and you will experience substantial and satisfying wealth gains.
The contents of this book are based on my twenty-plus years as a real estate/banking economist. You'll find simple and easy-to-use information on how to successfully purchase, invest in, and maintain real estate, learn more, I urge you to visit the following Web sites for information and insight: www.Fanniemae.com; www.Freddiemac.com; www.REALTOR.org; www.REALTOR.com' www.mbaa.org; and www.nahb.org.
Perhaps the most important message of this book is that real estate doesn't even need a boom to roar. Even when property sales and price appreciation settle back to more normal levels of activity, property returns still offer benefits that more traditional investment vehicles such as stocks and bonds cannot. I'm talking about the leveraging power of your real estate investments as well as the tax and other government benefits bestowed upon property. Such benefits give real estate a "competitive edge" over stocks and bonds and other investment rivals as long-term investments, even in a slower real estate market. In a boom, such benefits are even more powerful.
In my view, there has never been a better time to make real estate a bigger part of your long-term financial future.
Chapter One The Opportunity of a Generation
The recent U.S. real estate boom has made money for an incredible number of households in America. In fact,in 2001 and2002, many economists (including me) claimed that real estate was the only sector propping up the economy and keeping it from a full blown free fall. Even as stock prices tumbled and businesses faltered, the real estate market continued...
About the Author
DAVID LEREAH, senior vice president and chief economist of the National Association of Realtors, serves as the association’s spokesman on the economy and real estate markets. Dr. Lereah is one of the nation’s most prominent housing economists. He has written numerous books and articles on finance, investments, and real estate; is frequently quoted in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and BusinessWeek;and appears frequently as a commentator on CNN and CNBC. He lives with his wife, Wendy, and three children in Fairfax Station, Virginia.
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Are You Missing the Real Estate Boom?
by David Lereah
