Best places to in Real Estate
The World’s Best Places to Live 2008
Mercer Consulting’s annual roundup of the global cities with the best quality of life is here, and Zurich once again comes out on top. The best place in the U.S.? Honolulu at No. 28
By Carl Winfield
New York, London, and Paris are internationally renowned cities but consultants at Mercer Consulting have picked Zurich, Switzerland, as the best place to live in the company’s annual survey.
Consultants rated each city on a variety of factors including the level of traffic congestion, air quality, and personal safety reported by expatriates living in more than 600 cities worldwide. In the top 25, U.S. cities such as San Francisco, Boston, and Chicago were all edged out by Geneva, Switzerland, Vancouver, B.C., and Auckland, New Zealand. The highest-scoring U.S. city is Honolulu, which came in at No. 28. (more…)
Supposedly, the world’s happiest country is…Denmark. The country is #1 in terms of the Gini coefficient, #2 in terms of being the most peaceful country in the world & have the 6th highest GDP per capita.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Denmark, with its democracy, social equality and peaceful atmosphere, is the happiest country in the world, researchers said on Monday. (more…)
Sitting in a taxi cab driving home earlier tonight, I thought to myself “The Taxi rates are pretty low here in Korea. How long will this last given the increase in oil prices?” Very specifically, it costs a little less than $2 (U.S.) for a 5-10 minute cab ride and it only cost me $6 to drive across town from the express train station tonight. (more…)
Businessweek with data provided by a New York firm called OnBoard identified the top 50 locations throughout the U.S. to raise your kids based on crime rates, cost of living, schools, test scores and cultural amenities.
The top were:
No. 1 Groesbeck, Ohio
No. 2 Western Springs, Ill.
No. 3 Deerfield, Ill.
No. 4 Echelon, N.J.
No. 5 Arapahoe, Neb. (more…)
Another list of potential places to invest in:
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/04/0418_housing/index_01.htm?chan=rss_topSlideShows_ssi_5
The slide show argues some markets have seen as much as a 40% drop in home prices and so it’s wise to get in. A friend of mine in the business says “business is picking up” probably due to the drop.
Cities listed are Sacramento, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Atlanta, San Diego, Boston, Miami, Chicago, Seattle, Washington D.C., San Francisco, Houston and Denver.
If I move back to the states, these are my targets:
Originally from: http://images.businessweek.com/ss/07/05/0510_affsub_west/index_01.htm, from bestplaces.net
Anchorage, Alaska 99516
Metro: Anchorage
Nearest city with pop. 200,000-plus: Anchorage
Median Home Price: $550,000
Cost of Living Index: 135.4
Primary School Test Score Index*: 143
Violent Crime Index: 50
Average Commute Time: 23.7 minutes (more…)
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I have no idea how they came up with the list, but I’ve been to Sydney, Tokyo & Honolulu & they were all great. I don’t think these people (who are rating these cities) have really visited Seattle or Vancouver, B.C. or rather these guys must be from Austria, Germany or somewhere in central Europe because having 50% of the list from that area and 2 others from the Scandanavian part of the continent seems a little biased…
Nevertheless, I still like the list from here:
http://www.iht.com/slideshows/2007/06/18/travel/web-0621Toptencities.php
#1 MUNICH. After much tire-kicking, data-sifting and deliberation, Munich emerged as Monocle magazine’s most liveable city in the world. A winning combination of investment in infrastructure, high-quality housing, low crime, liberal politics, strong media and general feeling of Gemütlichkeit make it a city that should inspire others. (more…)
I had a very hard time deciding to get back into real estate after a slimy one week of watching a broker tell me that people who bought $15,000 properties weren’t worth my time right out of college. However, one thing I trusted was that Seattle and the area surrounding it was some of the best real estate in the world. I’m biased since I grew up there.
Most of my life people I ran into from around the world in New York, California or Korea asked “You’re from where?” “I heard it rains a lot over there” and a bunch of other questions or comments showing how ignorant they were about Seattle. They didn’t know that Seattle was the home to the biggest software company in the world (Microsoft), the home to where they found the biggest commercial manufacturer of planes (Boeing), the biggest franchise of coffee shops (Starbucks), and (more…)
Business 2.0 writes more about the real estate markets in the u.s. They tell us the top cities to buy, the places not to buy and places where foreclosures are happening right and left.
I thought I would summarize them a little for your sake.
WHERE TO BUY NOW [Projected 5 year gain in home prices are in brackets ().]
1. Panama City, FL (72%), 2. Vero Beach, FL (64%), 3. Bridgeport, CT (63%), 4. Lakeland, FL (59%), 5. McAllen, TX (57%), 6. San Luis Obispo, CA (40%), 7. Wilmington, NC (37%), 8. Manchester, NH (35%), 9. Fort Collins, CO (28%), 10. Atlanta, GA (24%).
For more details on why, visit their slide show clicking on here.
WHERE NOT TO BUY (according to Business 2.0, they say ‘at least for the next year or so’)
1. California’s Central Valley, 2) Southwest Florida, 3) The Jersey Shore, 4) Phoenix, 5) California’s Inland Empire, 6) and a bunch of other cities they list: Stockton - CA (-9.7%), Merced - CA (-8.9%), Reno/Sparks - NV (-8.9%), Fresno - NV (-7.9%), Vallejo/Fairfield - CA (-7.8%), Las Vegas - NV (-7.1%), Bakersfield - CA (-6.6%), Sacremento - CA (-6.4%), Washington, D.C. (-6.3%), Tucson - AZ (-6.2%) [projected drop in median home prices are placed in brackets()].
For more details from this article/slide show, click on here.
TOP 10 FORECLOSURE MARKETS according to Business 2.0 & Realty Trac:
1. Greely, CO, 2. Detroit, MI, 3. Miami, FL, 4. Indianapolis, IN, 5. Ft. Lauderdale, FL, 6. Denver, CO, 7. Dayton, OH, 8. Dallas, TX, 9. Fort Worth, TX, 10. Atlanta, GA
For more details on this slide show, feel free to click here.
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