You always had to invest smart if you were going to invest at all. That’s the case now than ever because too many people simply have too few dollars to invest. Luckily, HomeUnion®’s Investimate provides users with the data they need to make creative decisions so that what money they do have goes to good use!
To begin with, it’s important to acknowledge the facts as they stand. It’s just important to recognize and validate people’s experiences! The Wall Street Journal recently published a report on how the tiers of wealth have been doing over the last four decades. As expected, the middle and lower classes have shrunk while the rich have only gotten richer.
The average income for top earners has climbed from $38 an hour to $53 an hour. A significant increase! The middle class, however, has basically not grown at all, inchin upward a near negligible dollar from $21 to $22 an hour. The lower tier has not grown at all; it’s been $11 per hour this whole time.
The upper tier has expanded slightly from 14% to 19%. The middle class has shrunk by nearly twice that! It’s gone from from 61% to 52%! And the lowest tier has increased from 25% to 29%. If you look at these figures in comparison to the steady increase in home prices over the same time period, the affordability gap becomes self evident.
In large part this is because the greatest growth in the job sector has been of jobs that simply don’t pay well enough. These are hourly jobs at the bottom of the wealth pyramid, many of them in the gig and tip economy. They don’t provide health insurance or other benefits, which only further strains a job force that’s already struggling to meet monthly expenses. Gone are the days of a well paying manufacturing job that could sustain a whole family!
So, owning a home has become a stretch for too many people. Many dual income families have been opting to rent instead, and, at best, invest in properties in more affordable locations. Sure, rental opportunities on the coast are still expensive and are experiencing greater home price growth, but recent trends point to a slow down.
This doesn’t mean investing in real estate is no longer an option; it just means that investing in real estate requires making creative choices. Exploring new options means finding locations that match your budget and financial preferences. That requires data and local support structure to conduct due diligence. That’s where Investimate from HomeUnion® comes in!
Investimate provides the data you need to make your investments. It helps you discover growing markets, like Atlanta, Dallas, and Charlotte, while providing the tools you need to manage your investment post-purchase. Realestate is still the great asset class it’s always been; it just takes more creativity to get into it. Investimate is the tool you need to be creative. These days people need all the tools they can get; with Investimate you won’t have to look for those tools in different places. You’ll just have to look to HomeUnion®!
