just found a great gov't site that has quarterly housing price indexes going back for decades. they even break it down to metropolitan regions. I will refrain from commentary and just let the numbers speak for themselves.

Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (www.ofheo.gov)

 

It's frightening to see that the last few quarters reflect double digit increases in the House Price Index over the same period last year. These are the only periods of double digit increases on the chart.

The bad news is that if you look back over history (the history of this index) there are quarters where the index is negative (falling house prices). The good news is that the negative numbers don't appear often, and in general, the price of houses tend to increase.

I think the chart is trying to say that if you buy a house to live in over time, most likely it will be worth more then when you bought it. If on the other hand, if you buy a house for investment, it may not be worth more when you have to or want to sell it.

As we've known for a long time, in the long run real estate tends to be a very good investment, at any given time you may not be able to get your money out.

Trit, this is a good find, an interesting set of numbers.

 

my company just flew me down to Richardson, TX for some training at the Fujitsu campus down there over the last week. I took some time to look around at some of the houses they had and was simply BLOWN AWAY at how gorgeous many new homes are. I'm talking about complete stone and brickwork all around the house-- and VERY artfully/skillfully done-- with large lots, large houses, and architecturally complex roofs. neighborhood after neighborhood had new homes built that would've EASILY sold for $2.5M+ anywhere in and around the Bay Area (and of course 2-3x that if in a highly desirable location).

how much where they selling for in Richardson, TX???






under $200K.

if these beautiful large homes on large lots-- with expensive materials and not insubstantial construction costs-- are being sold for under $200K (I was told that many of them were going for ~$150K), it really served to illustrate just how much of a premium we pay JUST FOR THE LAND here in the SF Bay Area.

 

Location, location, location. The only three things you really need to know about real estate.

Always has been true, always will be.

 

Yep, location will do it every time. My parents' house was in a lousy location when they bought it - limited bus service for commuters, no train service at all.

The house cost approx $18,000 in 1973, was up to $80,000 in 1995, and would easily sell for over $1,000,000 now.

In the past ten years, the economy took off (Celtic Tiger), the services improved, and they build two new golf courses. It's also a beach town, ten miles north of Dublin city. Suddenly, it's a great location.

 

Hehe. Welcome to Texas. (You should have dropped us a line. )

Yeah, the cost of living in the DFW area is super cheap. Texas on average ranks the very last in terms of house price increases. There's so much land here - why bother paying a premium for any particular spot? Then again, there are neighborhoods of nothing but million-dollar houses (you thought the $200k ones in Richardson are nice? ), and other neighborhoods in high demand where prices are increasing (such as, pay $250k for a 1920s house only to bulldoze it and pay for 3500sq ft of new construction yet only five years ago that house was worth $100k at the most) - but for your average house, stuff is very affordable here.

I don't see much of a boom here, excepting those specific high-demand areas, and hopefully any housing bubble burst won't effect prices here much either... Actually, that wouldn't be that bad. Not too many people buy here on speculation, I don't think interest-only loans are that common, so prices going down will only mean less property taxes. Yay!

 

I don't know if this is the case in Texas, but typically, those areas with the cheapest land costs, and the consistantly lowest cost of living, are those areas where it is most difficult to make a living, and therefore less desirable places to live.

The ability to make a living, and the cost of land/housing prices tend to go hand in hand.

Of course, this is not always the the case, and always there are exceptions, but in general this is the way it is. The first question to ask when you find an area with houses that seem rediculously cheap is, "Can I make a living there?" Oftentimes the answer will be "no".

 

Hmm, well, as far as I can tell, the job market is doing very well here in the DFW area. I don't have any stats on that, just a feeling from knowing what my friends have been up to.