Skidding along the bottom!

There are so many comprehensive USA property listing sites available in the USA that can aid the property investment process they can show you the “tone” of the neighbourhoods and compare one with another. They also show what’s for sale, what’s to rent, what’s been sold and what you can buy if you want to offer. So why can’t we call “the bottom of the market”?

Take a look at the 2007-2010 reduction in the value of 3 bed single family homes in tourist areas in Florida the loss in value is scary from $250,000 to $75,000 and in many parts the fall in value slope is still downwards or flat.

Rental value for these units hover around the $800 – $900 per month and demand is good and at this level the gross returns are over 13%, that will still net to 10%+ and where can you get that in the UK?

Some reassurance can come from the American mindset “a property owning democracy” land of the free, home of the brave, incentives have been made available to encourage families back into ownership. BUT more forclosure releases are on the horizon and this could keep the slope downwards again.

One interesting point to note is the price of new homes, compared with that of the existing stock and where there are new homes being constructed.  There is a bit of a shortfall of new builds and prices for new builds are well above existing empty stock. When the time does come for a mass buy of US property it will be the “existing stock” that people are buying.

Property wire report Fannie Mae and Freddie Mack the largest mortgage providers in the USA has the view that although sales are subdued this is the bottom and they are predicting a small rise in 2011. Interestingly the amount of property sales to foreign nationals accounted for 7% of sales a massive 66 billion dollars worth………Time to Invest? Take a look at our USA Property Investments.