East Bay Blog

I really want to Thank You. When I first started my East Bay Real Estate Blog last month, I was hoping it would not be a waste of time. Well I checked my website stat’s today, and I am getting an average of 29 people reading my blog every day. Thank You for taking the time, and if you have comments, please post them.

So today I want to take some time to let everyone know why I think Real Estate is the best investment you can own. After watching some of the news this weekend, you would think that the real estate market is crashing. Every show that talked about real estate was filled with bad news. The National Association of Realtors even came out last week and said that for the first time in 40 years, the median price of a home would decline year over year. How much would the median price drop……drum roll…….0.7%. A drop of less than 1% is not what I would call a crash. What other investment do you know of that has never dropped year over year, since the 1960’s? I don’t know of any. Yes, the East Bay has seen a drop from the peak of more than 1% but that is because of the incredible gains that property values in this area experienced over the last several years. If you purchased a home 5 years ago, don’t worry, you still have plenty of equity.

There are many reasons why I think Real Estate, especially in the East Bay, is the best investment you can own. A couple of reasons why I like real estate so much are;

Leverage. You can purchase a property with little or no money down. There are few other investments where you can use so much borrowed money and so little of your own. The money that you are loaned is also tax deductible, which brings me to my 2^nd point.

Tax Benefit. The interest you pay on your mortgage is tax deductible. One of the few deductions left that the IRS still allows. On top of that, if you have lived in your property for several years as your primary residence, your gain at time of sale is also tax free up to $250,000. A married couple is exempt from tax up to $500,000. How many other investments can you own, make a $250,000 profit, and not pay tax?

Security. Real Estate is a real world investment. Unlike stocks, bonds, commodities… it is not just a piece of paper, it is a physical thing. You don’t have to rely on others running a company, hoping that your share price goes up. You are in complete control of your real estate. Live in it, rent it out, fix it up, alter it, you are in control of your investment. If times get tough, you can’t move into your stock portfolio. Real Estate provides security that other investments don’t have.

There are many other reasons why I think real estate is the best investment you can own, but I don’t have time to write them all down here.  And if I did, I don’t think you’d have time to read them all.  Again, I am not putting down other investment vehicles.  The smart investor will diversify and have other investments in addition to real estate, but in my opinion, as a long term investment, nothing beats real estate.