Pleasures and Pitfalls of Owning a Second Home or Retreat Property
Tax laws and more at
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,117993,00.html
Putting Stock in Property
The astounding rise in home values is enticing many middle-class Californians to bet on dirt, gambling their retirements that they can do better with property than with any other investment. In the same way that the stock market's apparently limitless ascent in the late 1990s seduced investors into buying shares in untested dot-coms, relentlessly rising house and land prices are spurring people to do things that used to be considered unusual — if not irresponsible. They're cashing in retirement funds, selling stock and taking out second mortgages. They're pouring the money into real estate, often in distant states, often without seeing the property…
Most popular areas for investment, ranked as a percentage of all homes bought solely for investment in 2004:
Redding, Calif., 19.08%;
Medford-Ashland, Ore., 18.78%;
San Luis Obispo-Atascadero-Paso Robles, 18.20%;
Visalia*, Calif., 17.98%;
Merced, Calif., 17.53%;
Chico-Paradise, Calif., 17.52%;
Fresno, 17.48%;
Tallahassee, Fla., 16.78%;
Bakersfield, 16.56%;
Reno, 16.18%.
*Also includes Tulare and Porterville.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=2026&e=5&u=/latimests/puttingstockinproperty
Is the Housing Market Going to Crash?
Cheap money and refinancing have fueled an unparalleled boom/inflation of real estate prices across the nation. Most gains have been cashed out via the equity loans that have provided a supplemental "income" for households to keep this economy spending. It’s the costly S&L tragedy all over again. http://www.baltimorechronicle.com/033105Cederholm.shtml