Comments on: Global price-to-rent ratio

By: adam

adam — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 02:38:15 +0000

would like to see a graph of the rental yields on tokyo property over the last 25 years.

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 14:36:00 +0000

The normalized values, with respect to the respective countries’ long-term averages, is interesting, but absolute values would be helpful as well.

One can make the argument that even with today’s low interest rates, a price-to-rent of, say, over 15 means that a house is not economical to buy versus GICs, i.e. if a house costs $300k and only commands $1666.67 per month in rent you’d be better off to rent and put the savings into GICs.

The relative numbers you give can indicate upward or downward pressure on the trends, but the absolute number can tell you if it makes economic sense to buy or rent.

By: The Boss

The Boss — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 05:43:07 +0000

I love when a bunch of shmucks have such a gift of declaring the obvious. Wait..real estate is down…well real estate was up….way up….so I guess its a market! WOW! I had no idea….if you don’t even know that any commodity is subject to market volatility you’re a twit regardless of the commodity. So lets not give ourselves a medal because we all saw people leverage themselves into oblivion and pretend we’re geniuses when it catches up to them. BIG DEAL. 80% of the WORLD’s millionaires have made their money in real estate. I’m not a realtor or a optimist..but talk to me in 25 years and we’ll see where people made money regardless of short term market snapshots in time (highs or lows). One thing for sure it won’t be those who bought bonds, GIC’s, mutual funds, or stock pickers as typically they average less than double digits. Any near sighted investor can call the market as it is. That won’t make you anything even if you’re a self declared real estate prophet with a self appointed “I’m a genius” medal hanging around your neck. Do you think that Donald Trump and many others won’t make even MORE money in a down market??? This blog is an absolute joke if there’s no perspective of the inevitable upside to real estate over the LONG TERM.

By: Canoz

Canoz — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 23:56:07 +0000

I read an article today from an Investment Advisor with lots of letters after their name who said that because of the current volatility, it might be “Prudent to invest in gold and real estate“. In the same batch of mail was a flyer from a large home builder advertising a “massive inventory clearout save up to $70,000“ off homes not far from my house.
I kept the Advisors article on file to be sure in the future I do not use their services.