Keep an eye on CalculatedRisk.
https://www.calculatedriskblog.com/
He watches housing and interest rates very carefully.
There's so much money on the sidelines, and Yellen and Powell are (finally) serious about normal people benefitting from economic growth, that it's hard for me to imagine interest rates going up much (though going from 2% to 3% (or whatever) is a big change). They're not going to choke-off the recovery.
Housing prices going up now is a bigger concern.
It's hard to know what will happen when/if the eviction moratorium ends. We're not out of the woods on COVID yet, and people in charge aren't going to want 10M people suddenly homeless...
Investors have been buying single-family homes for a long time. It was part of the AirB&B craze for a while, I think. You're right that inventory is a problem in a lot of places. Someone made a point that that part of the problem - investors buying homes and taking them off the market as rentals, waiting to flip them, etc., - could be fixed easily by imposing a non-occupancy tax. Something like that may have to be done, at least in some markets. And things would change quickly after that happened.
Otherwise: location, location, location. Don't expect to make money - historically housing goes up around 2% a year, but with luck you won't lose your shirt. And peace of mind, not having crappy upstairs neighbors, etc., is worth a lot.
Good luck!
Cheers,
Scott.
He watches housing and interest rates very carefully.
There's so much money on the sidelines, and Yellen and Powell are (finally) serious about normal people benefitting from economic growth, that it's hard for me to imagine interest rates going up much (though going from 2% to 3% (or whatever) is a big change). They're not going to choke-off the recovery.
Housing prices going up now is a bigger concern.
It's hard to know what will happen when/if the eviction moratorium ends. We're not out of the woods on COVID yet, and people in charge aren't going to want 10M people suddenly homeless...
Investors have been buying single-family homes for a long time. It was part of the AirB&B craze for a while, I think. You're right that inventory is a problem in a lot of places. Someone made a point that that part of the problem - investors buying homes and taking them off the market as rentals, waiting to flip them, etc., - could be fixed easily by imposing a non-occupancy tax. Something like that may have to be done, at least in some markets. And things would change quickly after that happened.
Otherwise: location, location, location. Don't expect to make money - historically housing goes up around 2% a year, but with luck you won't lose your shirt. And peace of mind, not having crappy upstairs neighbors, etc., is worth a lot.
Good luck!
Cheers,
Scott.
