Has Real Estate Been a Good Investment Over The Last Decade?

Forbes: Housing Had a Superb Decade

Posted: 08 Dec 2010 04:00 AM PST

Has real estate been a good investment over the last decade? Many people would be quick to answer ‘no’ to that question. However, they would be wrong. Real estate prices in this past decade have appreciated nicely despite the challenges over the last four years.

Forbes.com reported on this issue two days ago:

With all the teeth-gnashing over the real estate bubble, the bust and the mortgage mess, you can be forgiven for failing to notice this little tidbit: Housing had a superb decade.

According to Radar Logic, the value of a square foot of housing in the U.S. is up 58% from its January 2000 level. That represents an average annual gain of 4.3% in the value of one square foot of housing. According to the Case Shiller Pricing Index, home values are still up 34.9% over 2000 prices.

How did real estate compare to the stock market? Forbes answered this question:

The growth in average U.S. housing values looks pretty impressive compared with that of other assets, especially stocks. The S&P 500 is lower now than it was in January 2000. So is the Nasdaq. Even factoring in inflation, which ran between 2.5% and 3.5% for most of the decade, a home purchase really did produce wealth for anybody who opted to sell some stocks and buy at around the time the dot-com crash got rolling.

Bottom Line

Even in what many consider a sub-par decade for the housing industry, real estate proved to be an excellent investment.