|
| |
As home prices in certain parts of the country are falling, Charlotte has managed to eke out modest gains when compared to last year. The most watched Standard and Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index released lately showed Charlotte having a 1.8 percent rise in January as the 20-city index fell 10.7$ 5 $7- the steepest decline in the index's two decade history. Local officials and real estate agents cited the strength in the regional economy and Charlotte's history of more modest home price growth during the boom years as reasons the market was holding up now. A real estate broker said, "We are still selling homes here in Charlotte,"
That's not to say Charlotte, with approximately 1.7 million people in its metropolitan area, isn't feeling the same pressures as the rest of the nation. "You have to try a little harder to sell more of your listings, but homes are selling,"said a broker in the city. The Charlotte area is home to 9 Fortune 500 company headquarters, including 2 of the country's 4 largest banks, Wachovia Corp. and Bank of America Corp. More than 14 thousand jobs were created in the Charlotte area last year, compared with about 12 thousand jobs in 2006.
Canadians are more than half of all new houses purchased in Florida, Texas and California. Because of strong Canadian dollar, declining US dollars and weak housing prices due to the sub-prime mortgage mess have increased the desire for Canadians to obtain real estate across America. Explosive local housing markets in Canada where they are seeing double digit appreciations in their own home values. Real estate agents across Arizona, Florida, California and other Sun Belt states are seeing many buyers from Canada. According to a real estate agent in Sarasota, in the past 6 month almost 20 percent of his phone calls are from Canadians.
NEW YORK - Foreign companies from Asia and Europe have started to provide temporary corporate housing for their employees, and the companies have to shell out $4,000 per month. Now more companies from overseas are purchasing high-end Manhattan condominium apartments for their staffers. According to these companies, strategy makes perfect sense because of the flourishing real estate market of Manhattan and the favorable exchange rate.
The real estate market of New York has been very strong for a number of years; the average price of a house in Manhattan in the year 2007 was $1.26 million, up 11 percent from the previous year, according to the Real Estate Board of New York. A survey in 2007 showed that the city of New York was 15th among the world's most expensive cities, behind places like Moscow and London.
|
|
|
|

 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Real Estate Investing Blog |
|
|