Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Land price is tied to the population increase. As there are more people on the earth demanding resources, the demand for land will go up and the supply is fixed. If the world population were to go down, the opposite would happen and land prices in general would fall. Also, economic growth is the other factor in increasing the demand for land.
Even with these two factors in the long run, you still can lose money on land in the short run. Prices of farmland in the midwest will drop when corn prices fall to a reasonable level. And your land might not go up in value if you buy in a undesired location, which means you make no money.
It depends on the property and finance laws as well.
Housing prices are not rising, paper currencies are becoming more worthless as governments pursue stimulus in the form of money printing resulting in availability of very cheap credit. This cheap credit is falling in the hands of the upper echelon such as sophisticated investors rather than the common man. This has an effect of making those people especially wealthy at the expense of the common man which is in line with the long term trend of income and wealth inequality...makes sense?
The Fed just announced a few minutes ago that it will keep it's stimulus policy at $85 billion (or the staggering amount of $1 trillion/yr)... so expect more inflation that the government just ignores by publishing phony figures.
It's a ponzi scheme where everyone rejoices until an eventual reality just like what happened in Greece...
The week the Patent Office receives the first patent for a land printing press, I will sell my farm and move back to my city home where it's value is already at the mercy of home builders who love to overbuild and hordes of low-ball buyers who work at Burger King.
If its was devaluing of currency then why were prices dropping at the same time as currency dropping. A lot more to markets than that and supply and demand has much large effector even speculation based on it.
Do we have an intra-country breakdown by region/city? I'll just take the USA and Asia because that's what I'm more familiar with, and throw out China because who the F knows what goes on there regarding their economy.
Home prices are rising astronomically in the large cities such as NYC, SF, LA, Tokyo, Seoul, etc. But they are flat or rising slowly in smaller cities and rural areas in the USA. I suspect this is true in the Asian countries as well. I think this is just a phenomenon of people continuing to pour into mega-cities, and those cities just being physically constrained in the ability to provide more homes.
EDIT: Also, capital truly flows globally now. I was just reading an article about how home prices in London are being driven up by wealthy Russians, Chinese, and Indians. Same thing here in the Bay Area, mostly rich Chinese. NYC that is happening as well. I doubt a rich Chinese investor wants to buy a home in Fresno. So that also increases demand for housing in the bigger cities.
Home prices are rising astronomically in the large cities such as NYC, SF, LA, Tokyo, Seoul, etc. But they are flat or rising slowly in smaller cities and rural areas in the USA.
That's the way it has always worked in normal situations. If growth is astronomical in large cities, it is fast in smaller cities and steady in rural areas. If it is only steady in large cities, it is is likely slow in small cities and stagnant in rural areas.
However, real estate is a local thing. Right now though most Texas property prices, which were never blown out of proportion, have been steadily growing throughout the roller coaster ride that other states experienced. My rural Texas property is steadily growing and my small city home in an adjacent state is also steadily growing. Some price growths in Texas seem to be astronomical.
But you also have to remember the population growth (demand) and that state GDP grew 8% in 2012 in Texas.
There is the crux of it. The energy boom has driven demand with jobs, wages and an influx of workers competing for a place to live. Some other areas were so far depressed that in the absence of new construction they have rebounded.
As Will Rogers said, "put your money in land, because they aren't making any more of it."
Will Rogers was a clever man, but no real estate genius. Prices went through the roof in places like Arizona because of this flawed thinking, despite vast stretches of open land. The adage "location,location, location" is probably more apt. Most of the US is open land, no jobs or infrastructure make it virtually worthless.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.