Many Investors Feel Like Running Away From Homes
Buying real estate seemed a no-brainer five years ago. Cheap loans were easy to get. Home prices were soaring. Stocks were dead money.
How things have changed.
For-sale signs are sitting ignored in some cities. Interest rates on exotic loans are doubling. Insurance premiums and property taxes are skyrocketing. Wannabe real estate tycoons stuck with properties they can’t sell have been turned into landlords, forced to fix toilets and take tenant calls in the middle of the night. Many are “under water” — owing more on the mortgage than they could get by selling.
Meanwhile, stock investors have been celebrating again as broad market indexes march to new highs. And that is prompting some real estate investors to make the switch back to stocks. Real estate “isn’t as lucrative as it used to be,” says Jack Patterson, a financial adviser in Coral Gables, Fla., who has been helping clients sell real estate and buy stocks.