5 Real Estate Trends To Heed To Beat the Real Estate Blues from the Northwest REporter

As the housing market emerges from the recession, one author, media commentator and entrepreneur suggests five trends bear watching in order to seize investment opportunities.

“The secret to making sure your real estate doesn’t turn into a money pit is to watch the trends so you can predict where the prices will rise and where they won’t” said Greg Rand, CEO of OwnAmerica and author of “Crash Boom!” (2011, Career Press).

Rand, a radio host and columnist for Entrepreneur.com, refers to the residential real estate industry as the “most important financial product on the planet” and calls himself a “champion for the Asset Class of American Real Estate.”

“I believe we are now embarking on a real estate investment boom, the likes of which we have not seen since the end of the Great Depression,” he exclaimed, while urging real estate professionals to become fluent in the nature of housing economics, market cycles and the investment quality of residential real estate.

Rand’s five trends to watch include:

1. Short-Term Pain – Show me a market where home prices are back to 2002 levels, and I will show you a market that is overcorrecting.
2. Overdevelopment – One of the reasons the market is overcorrecting is overdevelopment and speculation, as is the case in Florida. Another reason is that the job base has eroded, like in Detroit. Isolated, explainable, short-term distress is the secret. Find your Florida.
3. Jobs, Jobs, Jobs – Track employment trends to see where companies are moving, and you will see a harbinger for long-term housing demand.
4. Lifestyle – Nothing drives migration patterns long-term more that the pursuit of happiness. Look at climate (the Carolinas), leisure trends (Colorado) and cost of living (Texas) for triggers on where the market may shift.
5. Responsible Government – Look at the state government. Does the state and city in question reward or punish risk-takers? Are you likely to suffer if you succeed there? If so, find somewhere that appreciates entrepreneurs. There’s nothing worse than putting your money on the table, only to have it redistributed.

As a self-proclaimed advocate of residential real estate investments, Rand vows to use his various media outlets as “a powerful platform to amplify the message and push back against those who cast doubt on American Housing as the best wealth-building asset known to mankind.”