Search

Survey Says: Real Estate is The Best Long-Term Investment

by devteam April 24th, 2015 | Share

Apparently all is forgiven and forgotten and Americans arernagain embracing real estate as more than just shelter.  For the second year in a row a Gallup telephonernsurvey conducted in April found Americans think it is the best kind ofrnlong-term investment.</p

Investing in real estate outstripped stocks, gold, traditionalrnsavings instruments and bonds with 31 percent of survey respondents preferring it.rn Stocks and mutual funds were second atrn25 percent. “A return of Americans’ confidence in real estate and stocks asrnsolid long-term investments was first evident a year ago, paralleling real worldrnimprovements in these areas,” Gallup said. “Their continued strength this yearrnindicates that was no fluke.”</p

</p

Real estate took a pounding in home values and consumer confidence duringrnthe subprime mortgage collapse and the subsequent housing crisis and recession.  Gold gained appeal during this time, likelyrndue to its tangible quality, but this has proved to be temporary. </p

Gold dropped to third this year as a choice for maintainingrnor growing wealth, declining by 5 percentage points to around an 18 percentrnpreference.  This was a significantrnchange, Gallup said, from 2011 and 2012 when it was the runaway leader.  Preference for gold has lost about 15rnpercentage points in the survey results since 2011.</p

Savings accounts and certificates of deposit (CDs) and bonds consistentlyrnhave been lower on the list, although those identifying savings accounts as thernbest investment reached 19% in 2012 — comparable to stocks and real estate atrnthe time — possibly reflecting Americans’ greater desire for stability andrnsecurity in the first few years after the 2008-2009 financial crisis. Thisrnfigure has since stabilized near 15%. The percentage choosing bonds has onlyrndecreased since Gallup’s baseline measure in 2011.</p

The two top choices in the survey were relatively unchanged from thernprevious year after three years in which real estate and stocks increased inrnpopularity while gold waned.  While thisrntrend originates in 2011, an earlier version of the Gallup question that didrnnot include gold shows significant shifts in preference for real estate andrnstocks between July 2002 and April 2007. rnDuring that period preference for real estate fell from 50 percent amidrnthe housing boom to 37% when values began to drop.  During the same period stocks increased fromrn18 to 31 percent.  Then both dropped 2008rnand 2009 as the housing and equity markets suffered severe losses. </p

</p

When data is analyzed by various sub-groups real estate remains either therntop choice or tied at the top among all major gender, age and income groups.rnStocks faced more competition for second place from gold and savings accountsrnamong some groups.</p

In particular, and mirroring a pattern seen in the past, nearly as manyrnwomen, and particularly women aged 18 to 49 years, prefer savings accounts/CDsrnas prefer stocks. And, savings accounts ranks a clear second among the lowestrnincome group, those earning less than $30,000 annually.</p

All Content Copyright © 2003 – 2009 Brown House Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.nReproduction in any form without permission of MortgageNewsDaily.com is prohibited.

About the Author

devteam

Steven A Feinberg (@CPAsteve) of Appletree Business Services LLC, is a PASBA member accountant located in Londonderry, New Hampshire.

See all blogs
Share

Comments

Leave a Comment

Leave a Reply

Latest Articles

Real Estate Investors Skip Paying Loans While Raising Billions

By John Gittelsohn August 24, 2020, 4:00 AM PDT Some of the largest real estate investors are walking away from Read More...

Late-Stage Delinquencies are Surging

Aug 21 2020, 11:59AM Like the report from Black Knight earlier today, the second quarter National Delinquency Survey from the Read More...

Published by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco

It was recently published by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, which is about as official as you can Read More...