No matter what age you are, the classic phrase, "Follow the yellow brick road" likely brings up images of Dorothy and her little dog Toto trying to get back to Kansas.
For many real estate owners around the country, they too are trying to get back to Kansas....Kansas being the days gone by when a real estate market increased modestly each year and their home was a safe haven, not a boat anchor around their finances and future.
And more and more, real estate is once again being experienced quite different across this country depending on what city, what state, what county, and even what neighborhood you live in. Presently, there is greater variation in real estate markets and sub-markets than there has been in nearly a decade.
In most cases, consider it akin to the stock-market's 'flight to quality'. When the stock market tanks, then investors move their money from penny-stocks and uncertain companies clinging to a hope and a dream, to blue-chips. Real estate is no different and we've seen a huge flight to quality as stronger areas have rebounded much quicker than weaker areas and in some cases weaker areas are still getting weaker which is definitely the case in the Chicago and suburban areas.
Hence in reply to the old saying of follow the yellow brick road, one must ask, but to where? To the established but higher-priced blue-chip area or into the marginal or fringe area that has been badly beaten down due to the recession?
Michael Hobbs, PahRoo Appraisal & Consultancy
Twitter @PahRoo
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