Real Estate investments by Gallup Poll

Real Estate investments by Gallup Poll

Last month we wrote about why Real Estate investments should be included in your retirement portfolio.   We justified our recommendations based on security and flexibility of real estate investments that could complement your retirement with cash flow rental properties.

And this week I was pleasantly surprised to discover a Gallup Poll of Americans conducted in April 2014 which clearly shows that we indeed prefer real estate to other types of investments hence validating our recommendations.

The poll shows Real Estate as the clear winner ahead of Gold, Stocks, Saving Account and Bonds by a decent margin.  The participants were asked a simple straight forward question which was:  “Which of the following do you think represents the best long term investments?”.  And the options were:

  • Real Estate
  • Gold
  • Stock/Mutual funds
  • Savings Accounts/CDs
  • Bonds

What’s promising in the results of the survey is that hat Real Estate is the top choice across all age and income groups.   And with housing prices improving across the country, Americans are developing more faith that real estate is the best choice for long-term investments.  But the favorable response to home ownership is associated with views of real estate as an attractive investment opportunity.  This implies that among groups with lower home ownership rates, like lower-income and younger Americans, still looking elsewhere for investment options.

Closely following Real Estate as the best choice for investments are stocks since their value have been improving in recent years.  But the news about high-speed trading networks gaming the system against the small investor should be alarming to some young Americans.  In fact, we are convinced that as long as the Executive pay is tied to Stock performance, there will be a lot of shady deals to prop up the stock values.  Another factor which could be working against stocks is the volatility risk associated with owning stocks as opposed to owning a home.

For those choosing Savings accounts and bonds, the rational is that they are historically safe.  However, these investments but do not offer as high of returns, and Americans typically don’t regard those as the best investments.

Well, we are happy that Real Estate investments are still the top choice of most Americans in 2014.  Where are you investing your dollars these days!?  Let us know.

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