The survey found that San Francisco was the third favorite city for foreign investors, with Houston and Los Angeles coming in at four and five, respectively. The U.S. remains the most “stable and secure” country for investment by a wide margin of more than 50 percentage points over second-place country Germany. This is the widest margin since before the crash of 2008.

Check out this video from CNN for further explanation on the current US Housing Market.

The U.S. remains the country providing the best opportunity for capital appreciation. It also leads the ranking for planned real estate acquisitions in 2014, with nearly 50 percent of respondents projecting a modest increase in their U.S. portfolio size and 20 percent projecting a “major” increase. “Foreign investors’ continued and growing interest in the U.S. real estate markets reflects fully functioning capital markets for both debt and equity that provide access to a broad range of investment opportunities,” said the association’s Chairman, Steven Hason.

Experts seem ambivalent on business investment and its potential importance or benefit to U.S. housing. “The lower-than-average homeownership rate and swarm of investor purchases might or might not be a long-term model for U.S. housing,” wrote S&P analyst Devi Aurora earlier this week.

The latest data from the National Association of Realtors, which was released last summer, showed that foreign buyers had scooped up $68.2 billion of single-family homes in the U.S. in the year ended March 2013. That’s about 7 percent of the total U.S. market. That number is slightly down from the $82.5 billion invested during the same period of 2012, but up from 2011. The fastest growth in foreign buyers was from China and Canada as much of the media is reporting now.

So what are you waiting for? You are already living in the best place in the world to invest. Check out our Flipping Houses University to see how you can get started.

To learn more about Part-Time REI visit us at http://part-timerei.com/

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As 2013 started we saw a recovery with the real estate market start off as slow as a snail. But as the 2nd quarter started we started to see the new light of day. By the 3rd quarter we were seeing numbers the real estate market hadn’t seen since the 2008 crash. The fourth quarter hit so many records in real estate that it had many experts predicting another real estate bubble.

As we’ve said many times in our blogs, things are much better in today’s market. Home prices are inching up. Sales are rebounding. And while foreclosure is still a problem, it’s much less of a problem than it was in early 2009. There’s a lot of positive news about housing all over the United States.

While most investors are interested in their local market, we encourage all investors to look at the big picture. Something all investors need to stay aware of. Not to say that we don’t encourage you educate yourself on your own market; this is important as well. Do the research and tell us what you think 2014 holds. Here are several outlets on opinions of real estate trends and what the market for 2014 has in store for investors in real estate. What are your 2014 real estate predictions?

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/top-10-real-estate-trends-for-2014/

http://www.gayapolis.com/news/artdisplay-realestate.php?artid=27478

http://realtybiznews.com/2014-a-time-for-change-in-the-real-estate-market/98723164/

http://retradio.com/predictions-2014-real-estate-2/

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/5-predictions-for-housing-in-2014/

http://realestate.msn.com/2014-housing-outlook-home-prices-head-higher

http://www.pe.com/business/business-headlines/20131230-2014-predictions-whats-ahead-in-real-estate.ece

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Again we feel too many new investors focus on national news.  We all know flipping is hot in Las Vegas and pretty much all the southern sand states.  But there are some markets out there that are making huge recoveries. We try to watch what is happening around the country, and as we start our Market Watch Series, we will share details of markets that look ripe for flipping houses.  You can compare these trends to your market and see how it stacks up. Next on the list,  Ocean City, New Jersey.

You mean Atlantic City right? Nope. Ocean city in the 3rd quarter was 6th highest priced for flipped home prices. Real estate investors there are taking in a average gross profit of $140,716. Granted the average price is in the mid to higher price range, ($467,113) there is still plenty of money to be made. The number of flipped houses was only a little over 50 last quarter but that was a rise of 35% from the previous quarter. Gross profits have risen substantially in the past year, however, from $18,542 in the third quarter of 2012 to $140,716 in the third quarter of 2013. This is despite the fact that the average price paid on a home that was flipped was more than $427,000. Those are some crazy growth numbers.

Again there is still money to be made from this segment of the housing industry, despite increased competition and decreased inventory. This is primarily due to overall buying activity in the area’s housing market picking up as the city continues to recover from Superstorm Sandy.

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Too many new investors focus on national news.  Real estate is hyper-local though.  Unless you live in Las Vegas, Phoenix, Washington DC, etc. it doesn’t matter what is happening in those areas.  Your market will be different.  In fact, your market may vary from one side of town to the other.

All of that being said, we do watch what is happening around the country.  In our Market Watch series, we will share details of markets that look ripe for flipping houses.  You can compare these trends to your market and see how it stacks up.

Spokane Washington

Earlier this summer the Spokesman-Review touted how its market was thriving.  Sales of homes on less than one acre were 20 percent higher than last year, the Spokane Association of Realtors reported. Through the first half of the year, 2,469 homes were sold in the county, compared with 2,046 in 2012. The median sales price of all homes sold this year for the city in the first half was  $162,500, or 5.9 percent above last year’s $153,450. The newspaper also stated earlier this year that the market was showing sure signs of rebound, a perfect piece to the real estate investing puzzle. Home sales and prices continued to climb across the Spokane region throughout the year. The number of homes sold so far in 2013 jumped 13 percent compared to the same period a year ago. “Together, those two numbers are helping brokers feel good, that the market is coming back,” said Rob Higgins, executive officer of the Spokane Association of Realtors. Not to mention Spokane’s average home sale price is up 10 percent compared to a year ago. More good news for flippers.

Spokane was enticing enough that flipping gurus FortuneBuilders set their course for the city this fall. For weeks, a deluge of advertisements for these their seminars flooded Spokane radio stations. Call now, said the voice of Than Merrill (FortuneBuilders founder, ex-NFL player, former Flip This House star) and get two free tickets to learn how to rake in profit with very little risk. Spokane is the perfect market, he said, for house flipping. 

Again the important thing to remember is to know your market. Make sure you know what the housing market in your area is doing. Real estate is hyper-local.  You don’t have to be Alex Foley to know that Detroit and Beverly Hills are not the same.  Some markets will lag national trends.  Others will never see the wild fluctuations that ‘hot’ areas such as California, Florida, Arizona, and Las Vegas will see. But there are those isolated not-so-obvious hot spots like Spokane. Remember that flipping houses is particularly profitable when you get both Forced Appreciation and Market Appreciation.

And this just in: http://www.khq.com/story/24066288/10-cheapest-houses-for-sale-in-spokane.

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A second look at Flipping Houses in the News

Since we posted our blog about flipping houses in the news there has been even more buzz about rehabbing. Enough that we felt some of the more newsworthly stories deserved a second glance.  It seems every day there is a new list of the “Top 5 Hottest Markets For Flipping Houses”.   Here’s a few articles worth reading on various markets around the country.

CNBC ran this story on how the housing market was heading into the spring selling season stronger than the previous year.  Los Angeles saw some of the earliest signs of the housing recovery.  The story discusses bidding wars and the return of house flippers for the first time since the bubble burst.

Shady investors helped create this mess, but legitimate investors have been an essential part of the housing recovery.  The reason for this is that during the housing bubble, speculators artificially helped inflate prices.   Now, rehabbers are helping to stabilize neighborhoods and preserve, if not raise, surrounding home values.  They are also luring first-time buyers into the marketplace.  But the how long will this fortuitous situation last?  Price increases mean some flippers may not be able to purchase homes and make significant profits.  Don’t wait until this situation passes you by to get into the game.

Flipping houses is on the rise.

According to RealtyTrac’s Midyear 2013 Home Flipping Report , house flipping was on the rise in more than two-thirds of housing markets.  These included New York, Washington D.C., Chicago and several Florida areas–some of the hardest hit with the foreclosures epidemic.  Nationwide, over 136,184 homes have been flipped.

RealtyTrac’s top 5 states for house flipping are as follows:

1. Washington DC, 80%

2.  Nebraska, 62%

3.  Oklahoma, 35%

4.  Pennsylvania, 31%

4.  Florida, 24%

“We’re seeing house flipping exceed what we saw back during the height of the housing bubble.”

—Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac

The housing bubble burst caused a ripple effect in other markets, including Nebraska, causing home prices and demand to drop off in recent years, Blomquist said.  That occurred also in Oklahoma and other Midwestern markets.  Now that consumers in those markets have their confidence back , home prices in those markets are rebounding at a faster rate than almost ever before as the market plays catch-up from the down years.

Post a comment below and let us know how your market is doing.

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What is the flpping houses market like?

If you are a Doomsday Prepper and have been living in a shelter since the Mayan Apocalypse, you may not realize that the above-ground real estate market is back.  The rest of us have once again been inundated with news articles and TV shows about flipping houses.  From HGTV to CNN, the airwaves are filled with love for rehabbers.  But, how do you know whether to enter into the fray or return to your underground home for another few months?

There are 3 main questions to ask when determining whether your specific market is right for investing in real estate.  These questions revolve around consumer confidence, absorption rate and days on market.

Consumer Confidence

This past May, sales of new homes rose to the highest level since July 2008, according to Commerce Department. Increased consumer confidence has driven this growth as has a reduction in foreclosure activity.  According to Jed Kolko, chief economist for the real estate website Trulia, “most of the foreclosure crisis is behind us, so there are far fewer foreclosed homes now on the market waiting to be sold.”  Ask your agent about increased market activity to see whether consumer confidence is up in your area.

Absorption Rate

The definition of absorption rate according to Investopedia is:

“The rate at which available homes are sold in a specific real estate market during a given time period. It is calculated by dividing the total number of available homes by the average number of sales per month. The figure shows how many months it will take to exhaust the supply of homes on the market. A high absorption rate may indicate that the supply of available homes will shrink rapidly, increasing the odds that a homeowner will sell a piece of property in a shorter period of time.”

Days on Market (DOM)

Days on Market is an industry statistic that simple tracks how long it takes an average property to sell in a given area.  DOM and absorption rate are often strongly correlated.  In other words, as absorption rate decreases, DOM often does as well.  This is simply because with less homes to choose from, buyers feel more pressure to act quickly when they find what they want.  When flipping houses, this is great as it means your carrying costs will be lower.

Good Markets

Most markets around the nation are surprisingly good right now. For example, the median sales price for homes in Philadelphia from December, 2012 through January, 2013 was $140,000 which represents a 16.7 percent increase from the same time the previous year.  Here are some other strong real estate markets for flipping homes according to the main-stream media…

Yahoo Real Estate News

Washington Post

Use Your Team

Don’t hesitate to ask your Realtor, “Should I be flipping houses right now?”  It’s her job to stay apprised of market conditions and she should have Absorption and DOM data readily available.  Remember, real estate is hyper-local.  Make sure you know the numbers not just for your town, but for the specific neighborhood you are looking to invest in.

Additionally, make sure not to over improve a house. The market in the area may be good but you want to make sure your house is sellable too. Ask your Realtor for comps of the neighborhood. Sometimes even if you renovate a house well, in the wrong neighborhood, the wrong area, you are not going to get the ROI you were hoping for.

Markets are up

The key is to look at what you can control. “There are fewer real estate investors now, compared to during the boom. But this time, they have really done their homework,” says Andy Heller, author of “Buy Low, Rent Smart, Sell High: Real Estate Investing for the Long Run.” You cannot control the market, but you can educate yourself on market trends and put a system in place that will guarantee profitable results.

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