Thanks to the Fed, Americans can NOT earn anything putting money in the banks. On top of that, you will lose money due to inflation. This forces people to invest their money in assets. The two major options are the stock market or Real Estate. While the Dow Jones has shot up to the 14,000 range, Our economy is exactly booming. I think this is mostly due to the fact that people(world wide) have to invest their money somewhere and the US stock market is the safest option compared to say the markets in Asia or Europe. However, the stoack market has a lot of risk that go along with it as well.
Real Estate has responded well in the Southern/Coastal States. 30A and South Walton Beach is a unique situation. The zoning is unbelievable and is really an awesome place to live. For places like Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, ect. it is one of the closet places to travel to that has a nice beach town. With interest rates at historically all time lows buying a vacation house (and leveraging it) is an extremely attractive option for a safe investment that offers rental income to off set cost and generate revenue while the property increase in value. 30A attracts mostly a high class crowd and there is relatively low amount of property available. Perfect example is how people with pay extremely higher prices to say "I have a house in Rosemary Beach or Seaside." Lots of the people that live out here have a lot of money and they are going to pay up for what they want. On top of that there are a ton of investors with cash on the sidelines just waiting to rush in on the next foreclosure that is a good deal.
Also, the lending process has gotten a lot more tight on making sure they give loans to people who can afford to pay the mortgage. This means that there are going to be less people defaulting on their loans and these great deals on short sales and foreclosures have already dried up. I hear a bunch "Oh I'm going to wait on some more foreclosures to hit the market and pass on this good deal." If the banks dropped 10 new foreclosures that were great deals priced below market value tomorrow morning, they would all have contracts(if not multiple) on the by that night. One must be ready to pull the trigger on a great opportunity when they see it because it will be gone very quickly....and its not even March yet! Once March gets here all bets are off and people who have been looking around this winter are going to be very frustrated because supply is going to be very limited and they are going to be competing with very motivated buyer who may only be here for ONE WEEK and need to make a safe investment!
Real Estate has responded well in the Southern/Coastal States. 30A and South Walton Beach is a unique situation. The zoning is unbelievable and is really an awesome place to live. For places like Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, ect. it is one of the closet places to travel to that has a nice beach town. With interest rates at historically all time lows buying a vacation house (and leveraging it) is an extremely attractive option for a safe investment that offers rental income to off set cost and generate revenue while the property increase in value. 30A attracts mostly a high class crowd and there is relatively low amount of property available. Perfect example is how people with pay extremely higher prices to say "I have a house in Rosemary Beach or Seaside." Lots of the people that live out here have a lot of money and they are going to pay up for what they want. On top of that there are a ton of investors with cash on the sidelines just waiting to rush in on the next foreclosure that is a good deal.
Also, the lending process has gotten a lot more tight on making sure they give loans to people who can afford to pay the mortgage. This means that there are going to be less people defaulting on their loans and these great deals on short sales and foreclosures have already dried up. I hear a bunch "Oh I'm going to wait on some more foreclosures to hit the market and pass on this good deal." If the banks dropped 10 new foreclosures that were great deals priced below market value tomorrow morning, they would all have contracts(if not multiple) on the by that night. One must be ready to pull the trigger on a great opportunity when they see it because it will be gone very quickly....and its not even March yet! Once March gets here all bets are off and people who have been looking around this winter are going to be very frustrated because supply is going to be very limited and they are going to be competing with very motivated buyer who may only be here for ONE WEEK and need to make a safe investment!