Are you ready to balance your portfolio yet?

For the past month I have been urging investors to diversify their portfolio and invest some of their stock portfolio into real estate rental properties.  I had forecast the end of the bull market and size able falls in Stock prices. I had also highlighted the tremendous returns from real estate rental appreciation plus increasing rental cash flows.

Well you can see the audit trail in my past blogs and in my Facebook posts. But the loss of $ 1 TRILLION last week and another $ 1.5 Trillion today, with Dow falling as much as 500 points, should be a call-to-action in anyone's book.  As an investor who has personally transferred some of his investments out of stocks and into real estate, an experienced Real Estate Broker, Mortgage Broker and a Property Manager, I can guide you safely through to a balanced portfolio which will help you weather the storm of the Recession that is about to hit us.

The tea leaves are already out there for savvy investors to see.  The economy has been very soft when even near- Zero interest rates only result in less than 2% GDP growth, the job gains are a mirage since they are mainly in service sector lower-paying jobs, the oil crash has not resulted in Consumers splurging but saving at record levels, Middle East and Russia instability, Chinese economic smoke and mirrors miracle, now spreading a contagion to our economy.  So it should be clear that the Bear market has already arrived and we will continue to see daily corrections of around 2% in Stock prices. So I have a recipe to free up your stock investments and move the funds into real estate rental properties which are relatively scarce unless you have good profession guidance and can move fast. 

New Year has dawned for Global Real Estate

2016 promises to be a momentous year for Global Real Estate.  With world wide uncertainties and unrest in the Middle East, China and N.Korea exploding a hydrogen bomb, and Europe trying to strengthen its union with weaker partners, the USA is perhaps the "safest" place for future growth and investment. Here in the USA we are coming out of a long recovery since the 2008 recession, but we are growing at a slow and steady pace of around 3% annually.

As we survey the investment opportunities here, it is instructive to note that the Stock Market has been subject to violent swings and the overall returns are negative or Zero at best. In stark contrast the Real Estate market has been growing around 7% annually on a national basis and in certain States like California and Silicon Valley, as much as 15% annually. This applies to both house prices and rental rates, so Real Estate is obviously the best place to invest in USA.

Given the backdrop of the global turmoil, it is most likely that there will be a huge increase in international investment into USA Real Estate market to propel house prices even higher and this combined with the increasing strength of the $ vis-à-vis the Euro, Pound, Renmimbi and other major international currencies, will provide even greater returns.

So the smart investor would be well advised to invest in USA real estate especially the West coast(San Diego up through Oregon to Seattle) even though there is local angst about the affordability of housing in terms of the percentage of income spent on rents or mortgages.  As an experienced  real estate investor, certified by the National Association of Realtors in Global Real Estate, a mortgage broker and real estate broker in the San Francisco Bay Area, I have noted in several years past, people always think " Gosh, the real estate prices cannot go up any more" but sure enough they rise relentlessly because Housing is a basic need and there is no comparable alternative for investing your money.