IP Global, a leading property investment company specializing in securing prime investment opportunities in 20 emerging and developed markets around the world, issueds its latest ‘Property Barometer’ for Q3 2012, with a special focus on North American cities.
New York, the traditional darling of investors within the USA and internationally, makes good on its reputation and is poised to deliver strong returns to investors over the next several years. The city has long been popular with Middle Eastern investors and its popularity continues to grow. At the current time the city boasts one of the lowest foreclosure rates in the nation of 0.003% and rental vacancies of less than 1%.
An attractive North American investment alternative is Canada, where unemployment is significantly lower than in the United States. Toronto is the city of the moment, currently enjoying very low rental vacancies, strong house prices and an excellent economic outlook, with only 1.4% of rental properties unoccupied in the city last year.
Shining bright with success and optimism is the Californian city of San Francisco. The technology hub’s property market was up by about 3.9% % between April and May this year according to the S&P Case Shiller Index as a result of a severe shortage in housing supply that is even more marked than New York’s. San Francisco also boasts a very low foreclosure rate of 0.006. Neighbour Los Angeles, while not booming in the same way as San Francisco, still shows a low rental vacancy rate of 4.2% and shows fair long-term prospects for returns on property investment.
By contrast, Detroit, Miami and Las Vegas have fallen down in the doldrums. The car manufacturing capital Detroit is suffering from general economic woes in every area, despite the upturn in the US auto industry, whilst Miami has a high foreclosure rate, of 1 in 30 properties in foreclosure, coupled with high unemployment and a property vacancy rate of 6.1%. Meanwhile, Las Vegas, while used to notoriety, is currently labouring under the label of the city with the highest rate of foreclosures in the nation.
“My mantra has always been to make sound investment decisions based on research and hard numbers rather than making emotional decisions. It’s easy to assume that tourist hotspots such as Miami and Los Angeles are good investment choices simply because they’re vibrant international cities with diverse economies, when in fact they’re not really the best choice of US city for property investment. The US is extremely diverse and each state and city needs to be examined carefully, which is why the barometer is so incredibly useful and why detailed statistics are absolutely vital for making good investment decisions,” Tim Murphy, CEO and Founder of IP Global said.