Experts warn about real estate as retirement savings

With RRSP season upon us, some financial advisors have some words of caution when it comes to real estate.

Don't count on your home to bankroll your retirement.

Laura Parsons, a mortgage expert with the Bank of Montreal, says many of her clients tend to think of real estate as a sure bet in retirement.

The bank recently put out a report with advice on saving for your golden years.

"There's a lot more weight on the value of our homes, so a lot of in fact, 41 per cent are considering that the equity on their home is really going to be the supplement for their retirement. So, that's a little bit concerning,” Parsons said.

Calgary financial planner Tim Faunt agrees it's a dangerous assumption considering the impact retiring baby boomers could have on the real estate market.

"There's all of these folks looking to downsize and at the same time, there isn't another group of similar size coming up through the demography to purchase those properties -- well then, those folks have a problem,” Faunt explained.

The housing market in Calgary may be in good shape now, but Faunt says it's always wise to diversify.

"They need to be developing their own retirement savings and not be counting on the vagaries of the real estate market to provide for their retirement income."

For the original post visit: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/story/2013/01/08/calgary-rrsp-real-estate.html

Real estate trends for 2013

PHOENIX -- Homeowners across the Valley are wondering what the real estate market will hold in the new year. Is it better to sell? To buy? Or just sit tight?

3TV’s Kristine Harrington went to the experts for a glimpse into the 2013 housing market forecast. She found that the outlook is positive, with home prices expected to rise.

Realtor Kelly Cook with Keller Williams says he expects real estate in 2013 to be even better than 2012.

“Foreclosures have almost completely fallen off,” Cook tells us. “They are less than ten percent of the market right now.”

And that is forcing prices to climb. Buyers are turning out in great numbers right now, motivated by the still affordable homes and the historically low mortgage rates. But with inventory moving quickly, Cook says some buyers are still struggling to find the right fit.

“You're seeing a lot of people having to settle for a house they don’t really want,” Cook says. “That’s because 3 months ago they could have had this, for that, but it’s not available anymore; it’s gone. It's a thing of the past,” Cook says.Across the nation home prices are expected to hit their first annual gain since 2006. But already in some areas of Phoenix, prices have shot up nearly 28 percent over the past 12 months.

And despite the fact those prices remain more than 40 percent below peak levels, this turnaround has sparked optimism among sellers.

“We talk to a lot of people who are 30 to 40 thousand dollars upside down on a house last year, thinking I'm going to ride this out because I think I can sell pretty soon here if appreciation levels keep going up the way they are,” Cook says. “So I think you'll see a lot of those people now will be able to sell in 2013.”

Realtors say the last few months of 2012 were slow, likely because of the holidays. But as we know, spring is when Arizona gets busy. So it's expected the real estate market will also be picking up in the near future.

For the original post visit: http://www.azfamily.com/news/Real-estate-trends-for-2013-185451592.html

Invest in real estate

Now that we have a budget and there will be no expat tax, Cayman real estate sales should start to see some upswing in people buying land, for as we all know things did not look good for Cayman in this very important area.

Sales in the market had dipped too low and since this is a market that is driven by investors, we can now look forward to a positive rebound. Hopefully this will also be so for the rest of the Islands. We must do all what we can do to keep this Island on the upswing position. For we have come too far too hard to fall down now. We must invite investors to our shores that are good for the people of our Islands and for our Islands, but always be careful of the wrong types of investors that are selfish and greedy and mean us all no good.

Our real estate market and its agencies and agents have done well for Cayman in the past. They have played a very great role in the uplifting of Cayman, so let us give them support so that we can start to see some betterment and a positive uplift in the real estate market.

Now we would also like to see the banks playing their part in this by making some loans possible to the people. We need to get the cash flow going, so all you real estate agents, I think it’s time you turned on the deal switch and get the market moving.

For those of you that want to buy, the time is so very good right now for you can get a good deal, so call an agent today and get the ball rolling.

As we all know, now the only place the Cayman Islands can go is up. We cannot go any lower than we have been for the last couple of years, so let us grow Cayman better and better. And give two thumbs up for real estate in Cayman and its future.

Source: http://www.compasscayman.com/caycompass/2012/09/11/Invest-in-real-estate/

Foreign real estate investors silently prepare for a new landing in Vietnam

VietNamNet Bridge – The foreign direct investment (FDI) capital flow into the real estate sector has been slowing down recently. However, experts believe that this is just a necessary period of rest before the foreign investors prepare for a new landing in Vietnam.

Analysts have predicted a new wave of FDI capital flow into the real estate sector which would be seen in the next few months. They say that the Vietnamese real estate sector now shows all favorable conditions for foreign investors to earn money.

A lot of real estate projects have been delayed due to the lack of capital, caused by the tightened monetary policies. Therefore, the developers of the projects are trying to transfer the projects, which is really a golden opportunity for foreign investors to buy back the projects at low prices.

Meanwhile, in the first two months of the year, Vietnam received only one FDI project in the real estate sector with the registered capital of 100,000 dollars – a modest sum. The figure represents a sharp fall from the FDI capital in the golden age of 2008, when the registered FDI capital in the sector reached 23 billion dollars.

Phan Huu Thang, Director of the Foreign Investment Research Institute, a unit of the Hanoi National University, has noted that the lack of capital for project implementation has been badly affecting not only domestic, but foreign investors in Vietnam as well.

“The worsening real estate market has forced foreign investors to interrupt the investment or lengthen the implementation period, while waiting for their opportunities,” Thang said.

The decline in the FDI capital flow into the real estate sector has been attributed to the fact that foreign investors have to deal with their own problems caused by the global economic crisis. The investors do not have enough money to implement a lot of projects at the same time.

Besides, as the Vietnamese real estate market is facing many problems, including the low liquidity, few transactions and the credit tightening policy, foreign investors need a time of rest to think about what they should do in the next steps. Meanwhile, the oversupply has been warned for the high end apartments and resorts – the market segment in which foreign investors have advantages.

However, analysts believe that foreign investors do not intend to abandon the plan to invest in Vietnam. They are still waiting for the opportunities to penetrate the market which they believe have great potentials.

The US Las Vegas Sands has expressed its willing to pour billions of dollars to the resorts in Hanoi and HCM City. Most recently, Thai Trinity Company has opened a 30 million dollar fund which would disburse for the low cost investment projects in Vietnam.

Oliver Smith, Investment Director of Trinity, has noted that the opportunities are awaiting foreign investors at this moment, when the market is quiet and many investment funds plan to quit the market.

He said that a lot of investment funds, which are holding big volumes of properties, now want to sell the assets when they are about to close the funds as scheduled.

Marc Townsend, General Director of CBRE Vietnam, also thinks that the FDI capital flow into the real estate sector would increase rapidly in the time to come, because 2012 is believed to be the end to the recession period.

One of the signals showing that the FDI capital would return is that the real estate market recently has witnessed a series of the merger and acquisition deals.

CBRE has predicted that the FDI capital into the real estate sector in 2012 would be triple that of 2011, with the presence of 20 foreign investors.

Source: TBKTSG