CNN Foreclosure Report

The New Rules of Real Estate

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Is it time to cash in? Or to double down before the next boom? The smart money says: Both. Here are the experts' top strategies for today's turbulent market.
By Paul Kaihla, Business 2.0 Magazine senior writer
January 29 2007: 4:46 PM EST

Get your foreclosures here!!!!!!


(Business 2.0 Magazine) -- First, the bad news. In August the median sales price for existing U.S. homes slipped to $225,000, down from its record high, a year earlier, of $229,000. The 1.7 percent dip marked the first year-over-year drop in more than a decade, according to the National Association of Realtors. To many economists, that was irrefutable evidence that the nationwide housing slump is here to stay.

Now for the glass-half-full perspective. First, unlike the destruction wrought by the tech crash of several years ago, the housing downturn won't take a huge bite out of the value of American residential real estate assets, currently estimated at more than $20 trillion.

"Housing cycles end with a whimper, not a bang," says professor Joseph Gyourko, the Wharton School's director of real estate research, whose new study shows investors where to make safe real estate bets during a dangerous market.

Second, down markets in housing have always offered investors just as many angles to play as they might find during a boom - you just have to know where to look.

Thankfully, we've already done a lot of the scouting for you. On the pages that follow, you'll find plenty of ways to play the current market, whether your risk tolerance is low and you're looking for safe ways to preserve your nest egg, or you're an aggressive speculator who sees a downturn as the ideal time to shop.

No doubt you'll read plenty of doom-and-gloom stories about people losing their shirts in real estate during the months to come. Read on to make sure you won't be one of them.

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2006/11/01/8392036/index.htm?section=money_latest