Fortune Magazine's Shawn Tully: U.S. headed for a real estate recovery

soundoff (4 Responses)

1. Lauren Veach
   

   Great Article! The news that Realtors throughout this great country have been waiting on! http://www.joingosouthern.com

   April 11, 2011 at 4:02 pm |
2. mickey
   

   on a national, macro level there may be a kernel of truth in what he says-assuming you buy into all of his assumptions about the underlying economic recovery,employment, interest rates, inventory of new homes, etc.
   the math that he conveniently overlooks in the rent vs buy equation is the kicker, in my opinion. let's say you can save in net terms 100-200/mo if you buy rather than rent. (of course, this assumes for most buyers that they have 20% down and high enough credit score to qualif, which most do not.) so, you might save 1200-2400/yr in the rent vs buy equation. if you purchase a 150k home and it declines 1-2% in value in the next yr, your "benefit" has evaporated. if the value of your new home declines another 5-10% this year, as many forecast, your benefit goes poof, and you join the rest of us in being underwater in terms of your equity. in short, i would not place so many of my eggs in the cost to rent vs buy calculation unless you buy into all of the assumptions and believe foreclosures are going to decline dramatically in the near term, which is highly unlikely.

   April 11, 2011 at 9:46 am |
3. Meg Russell
   

   How can I get permission to reproduce the Shawn Tully video for my real estate office?

   March 31, 2011 at 12:36 pm |
4. Sam Calvert
   

   Good to hear the Raleigh-Durham mention on the video. Thanks for posting.

   March 31, 2011 at 9:41 am |