The Best Values in American
Real Estate
By Dr. Steve Sjuggerud
July 05, 2007
Greetings from... well... I'm not quite sure where...
"Hey, Dad, does this place still count as part of Menomonie?"
"Yes, Steve, it does."
Well then... Greetings from my parents' lake house, somewhere outside of Menomonie.
The place is fantastic. And the price was embarrassingly low. For the price of a cookie-cutter home in Florida or a closet in London, you can have quite a spread on a lake here.
My dad grew up in Menomonie, but hasn't lived here since he was a teenager. A year or two ago, he somehow convinced my mom to buy a lake house here.
We just arrived two days ago. It couldn't be more idyllic... The weather's been perfect – we haven't used the A/C or the heat. The water's perfect, so the kids have been swimming, kayaking, canoeing – you know, all the things you do at a lake house. We also had a nice treat... My dad's sisters came on Sunday and brought their kids and grandkids, so we got to catch up with people we hadn't seen in years.
There's only one neighbor here on this part of the lake, and they came over and offered up just about all their possessions to us. "The canoe isn't locked, so if you want just take it," they told me as they met me. "And if you need to use our Internet, our wireless connection should make it over here." (It does, that's how I'm writing to you now.) Later, when the neighbor saw me carrying the canoe off his property, he hustled out of his house after me... to help!
What kind of friendly place is this? How can it be so nice, and so darn cheap?
Menomonie, Wisconsin, is a few hours' drive from Lake Michigan. According to a study that just came out over the weekend, the best real estate values in America are in places like Menomonie... places close to Lake Michigan and Lake Erie, in particular. "Value" in the study was defined as how cheap houses are relative to family incomes.
According to the study, Indianapolis is the cheapest major metropolitan area in America. With a median home price of $116,000 and a median family income of $64,000, a full 89% of families in Indianapolis can afford the median home at current mortgage rates.
Smaller areas are even cheaper. For example, Lansing, Michigan, has the same median family income as Indianapolis, but homes are much cheaper – only $100,000. And my colleague Tom Dyson's favorite, Detroit, is nearly as affordable as these two.
The National Association of Home Builders study covered more than 200 metropolitan areas. Nearly all of the 35 cheapest markets in the country are within a few hours' drive of these two Great Lakes.
The worst values in America won't surprise you at all. Out of the two dozen worst values, all but three are in California. The three markets that aren't in California won't surprise you either... They are New York City; Nassau/Suffolk County, New York; and Miami.
The most expensive market in America is Los Angeles... with a median home price of $525,000 and a median family income of just over $60,000. Unbelievably, only 3% of L.A. families can afford the median-priced L.A. home.
Now I don't expect you to pick up and move from California to Menomonie, Wisconsin.
When my parents told me they were buying up here, I wondered why... they could easily visit whenever they wanted. But now I see the attraction. For a few months in the summer, it's like having a Florida lake house... with more hills and fewer neighbors... at one-tenth the price.
While the property markets in Miami and L.A. may fall off a bit as the real estate frenzy keeps unwinding, I'm not too worried about Middle America. No worries about a real estate bust here in Menomonie... or anywhere else up here...
Good investing,
Steve
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