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Absentee buyers snap up single-family homes - San Francisco Chronicle
invite response
2013 Jun 3, 2:51am 1,281 views 3 comments
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curious2
2013 Jun 3, 6:48am
I'd like to read it, but I am not a subscriber.
Try copying and pasting the title into Google News
From the article:
Around the region, absentee buyers are muscling out the competition by ponying up all cash for investment homes. These real estate investors range from the new kids on the block - brand-new companies backed with serious Wall Street money - to contractors rehabbing "handyman specials" and retirees augmenting their nest eggs. While some are in the market to "fix and flip," increasingly investors have been buying single-family homes and condos to "hold and rent."
Simple economics lured them. Post-downturn, houses are cheaper than they've been in years.
***
Absentee buyers once represented about 10 percent of homes sold in the nine-county Bay Area, according to real estate service DataQuick. In 2012, they bought 24 percent of all Bay Area homes. Their presence hit a peak of 28.7 percent of sales in February, DataQuick said. Low-cost Solano County and eastern Contra Costa are particularly attractive to investors."
One issue is, while those counties might be technically in the "Bay Area" on a map, they aren't in the "Real Bay Area." In the Real Bay Area, prices aren't "cheaper than they've been in years," they're more expensive than ever before.
http://www.sfchronicle.com/realestate/article/Absentee-buyers-snap-up-single-family-homes-4569232.php?source=Patrick.net
Nation:House Price = 3x income
Bay Area: House Price = 8-10x income
I'm just not that committed to "owning!"