With all of the recent bad news about housing, this morning the Business Journal of Milwaukee is reporting that southeastern Wisconsin home values posted gains of about 6%, which has to be considered good news.
Not surprisingly, the headline is “Property value growth slows in southeast Wisconsin”, so I guess we can’t miss an opportunity to take good news and make it less good. Of course value growth is going to slow! Did anyone around here seriously expect the gains of 12%+ in the last couple of years to keep on forever?
Right now, I’m sure a lot of investors would be quite pleased with 6% appreciation in their portfolios. Just goes to show that housing, in addition to being functional, is still a great long-term investment.
According to the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), the U.S. has averaged about 7.18% appreciation in the last ten years. Between 1990 – 2000, the average was only 3.32%.
In short? We’re doing just fine, thank you.
