A good friend of mine, is looking into buying real-estate right now. He, like me, follows the news flow far too much.
We both know, there are a ton of reasons for real-estate to crash. Tons of reasons for fiat currencies in North America to crash. Tons of reasons for interest rates to sky-rocket, or stay low for a decade. Tons of reasons for commodities to explode [even] higher, or crash.
Question is, when?
If anybody out there, knows, please call me. I can leverage your bet 50:1 with finite risk. I’ll tell you how to do it. We’ll be both be billionaires, overnight. Oh…wait…
6% fees, in any market, is guaranteed to impede efficiency. So even if you did have an accurate crystal ball, or more information than other market participants, then there is the problem of estimating when the real-estate will actually reflect it. Oh, then add the unknown about government legislation to dampen (or accelerate) the problem.
Good luck.
My point is, it’s just as difficult, to game the real-estate market, as it is any other asset class. In the long run (decades), prices will likely be higher. (Outweighing the advantages or renting? Who knows, but you have to live somewhere) It’ll be a result of either government stimulus & fiat devaluation, or economic growth. One or the other.