In Economic News…

The LA Times had a lot of good economic news in the Saturday 8/5 paper.  The US jobless rate drop to 4.3% in July from 4.9% in July of 2016.  We added 209,000 net new jobs during that period.  In addition, the unemployment rate dropped to 4.3%  in July which is a 16 year low!  They also pointed out that the average hourly wage is up 2.5%
 
So how is real estate doing locally in Southern California?  The LA Times did a story on the Owlwood estate in it’s 8/5 issue of Hot Property.  This house was sold 10  months ago for $90 million!  Among it’s famous residents were Tony Curtis and Sonny and Cher.  Well, an investment company bought it, fixed it up, and it is now on the market for $180 million!  So, you may be saying, “I would rather build my own place,” so the same issue has a very nice ¾ acre lot with plans for a 6 bedroom house for $16,900,000.  I guess we can say the real estate market is doing well.
 
Now for some bad news.  The LA Times reported 8/6,  “A Tiny Town’s Massive Pension Trouble,” about a pension crisis in the town of Loyalton, California.  The story is about a local resident who worked for the city water department.  He is retired because of a stroke and thought his pension was there for the rest of his life.  He got a letter in October telling him his retirement check was being cut from $2,500 a month to about a $1,000 a month because the retirement fund in his city had to leave the CaLPERS system because his city was defaulting on payments to the system.  The scary part of the story is that hundreds of other retirees across the state may be put in the same position.
 
There is a way to protect yourself from the depending upon others who hold the purse strings of your financial future.  That is to get involved in handling part of your own retirement plan by investing in income producing real estate.  At Buckingham Investments we will educate you, we will help you get to know your local market, and we will help you do a plan dedicated toward the goals you have for your family.  Give us a call and let us tell you more about how we can help.