A Seller's Market?

In the last 6 months or so in the U.S. in many areas it has become a seller's market in regard to selling homes. I know about many many people who have tried multiple times to buy a certain house only to be secretly outbid by another buyer. So, people wanting to buy houses in the U.S. right now are having to become very savvy because most (for the last 5 years or so) have become very used to a buyers market where they could buy houses for almost nothing from people not wanting to go bankrupt and who needed to sell their homes at almost any price.

So, now it is a seller's market but that creates problems too. For example, as people buy more homes it causes loan rates to go up as competition for loans increases between buyers of homes. So, right now it is not only a competition for homes but also a competition for loans. This eventually will all equalize out.

One of the reasons to get a loan rather than to liquidate investments might be that you might pay so much taxes in capital gains tax and income tax  because liquidating investments might take now almost 50% or more to various capital gains taxes and income taxes so this is something to think about and to talk with your accountants and brokers about before you liquidate anything. Unless you are liquidating a property you live in where you might be immune to this especially if you reinvest in other real property within a certain time limit. So, sometimes the best way to buy new property is to just get a loan (as long as you are in a fixed interest loan). Otherwise over the long haul you might be better off liquidating investments to pay cash for a property in real estate. Also, unless you are living in that property it is important to think about whether you can either sustain payments that long on loans or whether you can afford to be without that cash with it sunk into a property that long either. Think long and hard about this because we are no longer in a stable investment scenario and won't be until some new kind of Glass Steagle kind of act is enacted to protect individuals from unwise banking investments. Until that happens just consider the effect of banks on the U.S. economy sort of like a "Las Vegas effect!" which means almost anything can and will happen at any point. So, protect your capital anyway you can because of this.

However, another way to look at this is that "The U.S. Stock and Bond market is the only game in town" for now worldwide. People from all over the world are investing in the U.S. stock market because the instabilities elsewhere are much worse than in the U.S. Stock market.

Another factor to the recovery in the U.S. is new U.S. laws which allow for a green card for anyone from a foreign country (especially China) who is willing to invest $500,000 or more into a home or business venture in the U.S. This is bringing whole families of the top 10% to the U.S. from all over the world to take advantage of the relative investment safety of the U.S. and the relative physical safety of their families in the U.S. environment.

However, I must say as a life long U.S. citizen that some of the scariest places I have ever been in my life are in the U.S. This includes foreign countries. So, one must be aware of when one might be in danger in certain areas of the U.S. and northern Mexico if one is going to come here and invest here and get a green card here in the U.S. So, before you invest learn where it is safe to be and where it is not.

Also, Canada is a safer place to be than the U.S. in general. For example, if someone walked into a house (without being invited in the south or even in most states of the U.S. they might just be shot dead by the occupants of that house). Whereas in Canada if you walked into a house uninvited they might just ask you, "What are you doing here?" and tell you to leave. That is the difference between U.S. culture and Canadian culture. Understanding things like this will keep people alive.