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By Beth McGuire

(TNS)—Given the recent record highs in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index and the Dow Jones industrial average, you might think Americans would feel excited about the future of the stock market. But you’d be wrong, a Bankrate national survey has found.

When we gave people a few choices and asked them to pick the best way to invest money they wouldn’t need for more than 10 years, the most popular answer was real estate. Next were cash investments, such as certificates of deposit and savings accounts.

The stock market was a distant third, tied with gold and other precious metals.

These preferences don’t match up with investing strategies that experts say will deliver the best returns over the long term.

Stocks Remain Unloved by Many

The bull market that started in 2009 and continues today is the second longest in U.S. history, but has yet to make a dent in Americans’ perceptions of the market, according to Bankrate’s polling data.

Back in 2013, relatively early in the bull market, 14 percent of Americans told us stocks were the best long-term investment available. Now, 16 percent feel that way.

Michael Weinfeld, a retired journalist living in Herndon, Va., is one of them.

He says that while he has experienced his fair share of market volatility — including losing half of his daughter’s college fund to the stock market crash of 1987 — he has enjoyed big gains over the long term by holding on tight.

“I’ve been riding the stock market up and down since the middle ‘80s, and I’ve learned a lot about how to weather all of these disasters,” Weinfeld says. “As long as you diversify and just wait it out, history shows that the market will eventually bounce back.”

Many Still Smarting From Market Bumps

Brad Barber, a professor of finance at the University of California at Davis, chalks up the relative unpopularity of stocks to leftover suspicion from the dot-com bust of the early 2000s and the financial crisis of 2008-2009.

“If you come of age in a period when you view the market as being tumultuous, that probably makes you less likely to invest in the stock market,” Barber says.

But those who stay out of the stock market on principle are probably doing themselves a disservice, says Avani Ramnani, a financial planner and the director of financial planning and wealth management at Francis Financial.

“You need to have a very well-diversified portfolio that should include stocks, bonds, some alternatives and real estate,” Ramnani says.

“Over the long period of time, we’ve seen that the stock market returns between 6-7 percent from a diversified portfolio,” she says — which beats many of the investment options that proved more popular in our poll.

Financial Security Improving

Americans may not be bullish on the future of the stock market, but their present is looking pretty good. For the 26th consecutive month, the Bankrate Financial Security Index — based on survey questions about how people feel about their debt, savings, net worth, job security and overall financial situation — shows Americans’ sense of …read more

From:: Real Estate News

When the market gets competitive, all-cash offers typically win out as inventory tightens and bidding wars commence. This leaves borrowers who choose to finance at an extreme disadvantage – until now. One unique tip from an article in The New York Times could be the key difference in locking in a home, but it’s not for everyone. …read more

From:: Real Estate Wire

By Beth McGuire

The economic growth outlook for the second half of the year remains unchanged from the prior forecast at about 2.0 percent, according to Fannie Mae’s Economic & Strategic Research (ESR) Group’s July 2016 Economic and Housing Outlook. Consumer spending is expected to drive growth for the rest of 2016 as businesses face headwinds from shrinking profits, weak productivity, and rising labor costs in the face of uncertainty stemming from Brexit and the U.S. presidential election. Government spending and residential investment should be positive contributors to economic growth this year, while nonresidential and inventory investment and net exports are expected to drag on growth. Although job creation picked up at the end of the second quarter, the hiring trend has slowed considerably from the start of the year.

“Financial volatility resulting from Brexit has created some uncertainty among investors as yields on government bonds have dropped sharply, Treasury yield curves have flattened over the past month, and the Chinese Yuan has depreciated to a six-year low against the dollar,” says Fannie Mae Chief Economist Doug Duncan. “In addition, our view on interest rates continues to be ‘low for long’ as we believe a Fed decision to raise interest rates will likely be on hold until June of 2017. Brexit’s economic impact on the U.S. will likely be limited, especially from a trade perspective, and should be a near-term positive for the housing and mortgage market as falling mortgage rates have prompted new refinance demand.” The ESR Group now projects a 2.2 percent rise in mortgage origination volume in 2016 from 2015 to $1.75 trillion, versus a 2.8 percent drop in the prior forecast.

“We still expect moderate housing expansion for 2016. While new home sales have pulled back from their expansion-best, existing home sales rose to the highest level in more than nine years amid the largest year-over-year drop in for-sale inventory since October of 2015,” says Duncan. “Without relief from new construction, housing inventory will likely remain tight, boosting home prices and constraining affordability.”

For more information, visit www.fanniemae.com.

…read more

From:: Finance and Economy

By Beth McGuire

The economic growth outlook for the second half of the year remains unchanged from the prior forecast at about 2.0 percent, according to Fannie Mae’s Economic & Strategic Research (ESR) Group’s July 2016 Economic and Housing Outlook. Consumer spending is expected to drive growth for the rest of 2016 as businesses face headwinds from shrinking profits, weak productivity, and rising labor costs in the face of uncertainty stemming from Brexit and the U.S. presidential election. Government spending and residential investment should be positive contributors to economic growth this year, while nonresidential and inventory investment and net exports are expected to drag on growth. Although job creation picked up at the end of the second quarter, the hiring trend has slowed considerably from the start of the year.

“Financial volatility resulting from Brexit has created some uncertainty among investors as yields on government bonds have dropped sharply, Treasury yield curves have flattened over the past month, and the Chinese Yuan has depreciated to a six-year low against the dollar,” says Fannie Mae Chief Economist Doug Duncan. “In addition, our view on interest rates continues to be ‘low for long’ as we believe a Fed decision to raise interest rates will likely be on hold until June of 2017. Brexit’s economic impact on the U.S. will likely be limited, especially from a trade perspective, and should be a near-term positive for the housing and mortgage market as falling mortgage rates have prompted new refinance demand.” The ESR Group now projects a 2.2 percent rise in mortgage origination volume in 2016 from 2015 to $1.75 trillion, versus a 2.8 percent drop in the prior forecast.

“We still expect moderate housing expansion for 2016. While new home sales have pulled back from their expansion-best, existing home sales rose to the highest level in more than nine years amid the largest year-over-year drop in for-sale inventory since October of 2015,” says Duncan. “Without relief from new construction, housing inventory will likely remain tight, boosting home prices and constraining affordability.”

For more information, visit www.fanniemae.com.

…read more

From:: Real Estate News

By Beth McGuire

Looking for more referrals? In the following interview, mother-daughter duo Linda and Kelly Boehmer talk landing leads, making the most of marketing, and more.

Linda Boehmer, Kelly Boehmer
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Select Properties

Years in real estate: 15 years new-home construction, 8 years as an agent team
Region served: St. Louis and St. Charles County, Mo.

Your mother/daughter agent team has received major awards in the last three years. What’s the key to your success?
Linda Boehmer: First, it would have to be our commitment to the profession. For us, real estate is a full-time job, not a hobby. It is actually full-time plus. That means we are all-in—and in doing so, we try to stay on top of the major trends.
Kelly Boehmer: The top-flight service we provide our customers is another key to our success. Our business is almost all referral-based. We take great care of clients during the purchase or sale, advocating for them every step of the way. They feel like we work very hard for them.
LB: The third component is the fact that we continue to educate ourselves. We never have a “we-know-it-all” attitude. We try to offer our clients the newest technology and the newest techniques. We strive to always be students of the business.

Where do you spend the bulk of your marketing money?
KB: It is a moving target. We rarely spend money and then remain complacent. We still do some print, but the main constant for us when it comes to marketing is spending money on presenting our homes in the best possible way.
LB: One thing we do not do is spend money buying leads. As we said, our customers, by-and-large, are from referrals.

What are the benefits of being a mother/daughter team?
KB: Because my mother and I are from two different generations, we are able to offer our clients true diversity. We have two distinct points of view, which means we have most bases covered for the people we serve.

When it comes to your team, what are you most proud of?
LB: We try to stay real and humble. We see so much ego in this business, and we do not ever want to be that type of team. Kelly and I try to be good co-workers and good industry professionals.
KB: We are very involved in the day-to-day client business and are not afraid to do some of the more mundane tasks associated with real estate, like putting out signs.
LB: And perhaps most importantly, for the last eight years, we have been recognized by Berkshire Hathaway as top contributors to the Sunshine Kids. We give a portion of every listing and every sale to this very important cancer charity. We are proud to be making such a commitment. For us, success is not always about how much money we make, but instead, what we have done to give back to the community and what we feel good about.

For more information, visit www.theboehmerteam.com.

…read more

From:: Real Estate News