Obama and McCain on real estate and rural issues

Since I write a weekly column on country real estate, I decided to visit the websites of Senators Barack Obama (www.barackobama.com) and John McCain (www.johnmccain.com) to learn what they thought about my special interest.

Candidate issue positions are not promissory notes. They’re more like inclinations, subject to whatever. Still, they suggest the direction in which a candidate prefers to fall.

First, however, I looked into what property each candidate owns.

Senator McCain, in a sense, “owns” the most real estate, which fell in his lap because he married a beer distributor’s daughter who took over the business and has money to invest. Mrs. McCain or her trusts own their real estate, which includes at least seven properties. Mrs. McCain bought three Phoenix condos and two in San Diego for $11 million over the last four years.

Newsweek recently disclosed that Mrs. McCain failed to pay property taxes for four years on her La Jolla, Calif., condo where an elderly aunt lives. The back taxes were paid last week. This seems to be nothing more than a failure to receive the bill. Read more

Rural Real Estate Trends and Directions - Nine Predictions

1.  Prices of almost all types of rural real estate will rise steadily in the foreseeable future.  Rates of appreciation will vary, according to where the property is and what type of property it is. Appreciation rates will beat inflation and have less volatility than stocks.  Four or five percent annual appreciation is a reasonable—and modest—forecast.

2.  Impacts, both real and imagined, of global warming will encourage relocation from the coasts inland, particularly away from the Southeast U.S. and Gulf Coasts.  Upper middle south and mountains will benefit,particularly non-coal-mining areas of Tennessee and Kentucky.  Rural areas of colder states will benefit; hotter, drier states will become less attractive. Read more

Seven reasons to buy country property in 2008

January is America’s month of endless football cliches.

“Coach, how are you going to win the Super Bowl?”

“Well, first, our front four has to beat theirs in the trenches. Then we have to throw the ball and run it too. Our special teams have to do a few things. And we have to make some plays. Finally, we have to hope that their safeties get penalized for taunting after interfering with our too-wide receivers, none of whom can do 40 yards in less than three or four minutes.”

Those of us who have been watching pro football since the days of Jim Brown know that there is only one way to win every football game: score more points than the other team.

Making a sensible real-estate investment is often summarized in this equally simple rule: buy low, sell high. Read more