I'm strictly an apartment man myself, what with my non-committal nature and all, but I can tell you we looked into buying as an investment recently. I can say that the difference between the part of Alameda Co., California I lived till August, and the part of Lowndes Co., Mississippi that I have lived in recently are bigger than I would have imagined. For example, a newly built, never-lived-in home in Alameda County in a small (~50,000) city in a nice Republican (predominantly white) neighborhood with amenities about 3000 square feet cost on the order of 900 thousand dollars. The same house with the same amenities of the same vintage in the same type of neighborhood in Lowndes County costs about 150 thousand. Only real differences: decent schools versus sorely underperforming schools, arid sunbelt climate versus subtropical humid climate, and higher taxes versus lower taxes. We haven't bought any properties, and are not likely to in the near future, at least till we find that little corner of America where we want to grow old (and after living in more than 30 cities in 11 states I can tell you I haven't found it yet). But I do investigate the potential for investment, and I am amazed at the nationwide differences.
Another amazing phenomenon is the difference between housing prices over time. In 1996 I moved into a 3-apartment, 3-story dwelling about 4 miles north of downtown Boston, MA. I lived there for five years. The man who bought the property at the time I was moving in (an otherwise well adjusted middle-aged laywer who liked to go onto the internet and pretend he was a 20-something, well-built, gay fireman, no kidding) paid 258 thousand for the property. In the summer of 2000, about a year before I moved out of the property, he sold the building for 505 thousand dollars. Nearly a one hundred percent profit over a period of just four years!
Two morals here: 1. Real estate was a good investment in the period from the mid-90s to the turn of the century. 2. If one could have a California salary and a Mississippi rent one would have it made in the shade.
Just some observations I thought relevant to the thread.
