Christian Real Estate Blog

30% of Homes Bought this Year will be by Investors

Read Original article here: RIS Media
Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies has just released a report outlining the fact that climbing interest rates and cooling speculative demand is putting pressure on the housing boom while at the same time hiking rental demand in all sectors of the U.S. That’s good news for anyone who acquired rental properties at the right time, and a possible window of opportunity for investors still motivated to sell or exchange property before prices decline any further.

According to the National Association of Realtors, there are 191,400 fewer apartments in the country primarily as a result of condo conversions. With all the condos on the market, many longtime renters stopped renting because they were able to take advantage of historically low interest rates and purchased the condominiums as their first homes. The NAR now predicts that renters will be paying about 5 percent more in rent than they did last year. If true, that would be the highest increase since 2000.

Homeowners and smaller investors with some flexibility in their living arrangements might want to consider renting out their existing properties while either waiting things out or looking to exchange.

Real Estate News provided by the Christian Real Estate Network

posted by Justin Smith @ 6/26/2006 01:17:00 PM