 Is it time to buy real estate? Now that's a question I get really, really often and let me first show you the investing real estate environment and then we will get to an easier answer for you if you're wondering whether it is now a good time or not to buy real estate. So if we look at home prices in the US in this case quarter one 2007 current home prices are already much higher than they were in the bubble of 2007-2008 and they have also significantly grown since 2012. Similarly in the Netherlands 2013-14 was the bottom I managed to buy at the bottom in 2014 and since then really prices have exploded on average 3.5% to 3% per quarter which amounts to 50-60% higher if you're in Amsterdam then also 100% higher. Globally also Austria 86% higher than the real estate bubble in 2008 Iceland, Sweden, Serbia, Norway, Germany 50% Belgium, Estonia, Netherlands are now just 10% higher than those were 10 years ago. And then we have still some negative Denmark there was big bubble in real estate Slovenia still negative Italy still below the average we are always talking about averages and Greece is still below and it was even lower. Now something very important when thinking about buying real estate is the interest rate. The 30 year fixed mortgage take a fixed mortgage because with inflation monetary policy you never know what might happen was really cheap when I made a video about buying real estate last year and it was even cheaper in 2016 and in 2012-2013 so in 2012-2013 was the best time low interest rates and low prices so that combination is something you have to think about it will happen every 10 years so think about taking advantage of that. Interest rates mortgage interest rates average interest rates in Europe are extremely low Denmark 0.9% France Portugal 1.5 bubble in Lisbon going on because you can borrow cheaply Italy 1.88 this is ridiculous this is coming from the ECB printing money. Now my answer to the question is it time to buy real estate? It was time to buy in 2013-14-15 I was telling every colleague I had buy real estate don't rent they didn't listen so then it was clearly big buy signal buy buy buy buy take a cheap mortgage. Now the situation is already a little bit different because real estate prices thanks to the cheap mortgages have really exploded and the mortgages at least in the US are not that cheap in Europe they are even cheaper so that's something you have to weigh and then see what best for you however there is another factor that's very important this is rent rents and rent prices you have seen the real estate home prices chart it went up it went down it went up again however rents went only up up up and up just to slow stabilization in 2009-10 but then again up up and up so you have to see okay if I'm paying rent then it is going to go only up however home prices might go down might go up but if what you're paying for rent allows you to buy a nice home as it was my case then I would first I would go for the purchase of the home with the mortgage fixed interest rate 30 years why because whatever happens your mortgage will always be the same and if you can find something that suits you that the mortgage is lower than the rent rents prices will just go up the mortgage will stay fixed forever and that's the difference in buying and that's something you have to calculate for yourself how much does it pay and then there is always real estate mortgage inflation protection especially with a fixed mortgage with a fixed interest rate for 30 years you get inflation protection you get a lot of benefits that you might lose out on the very long term yes real estate prices can crash that can happen always but what if they don't what if they continue to go up for the next 10-20 years amidst monetary easing inflation money printing and you don't buy now and rents even go up so that's always a risk when investing 2014 was a big buy now I would say only a smart buy matters try to find the best real estate you can find don't buy in the crazy exorbitant markets that don't have positive trends coming in but try to find something that suits you and that's complicated I would I have when I was buying in 2014 I invested six months to buy the property yes I six months every day looking at real estate online visiting five properties per week with my wife for a few months so we really knew everything about the market and we could have we could find the best buy there and we did find it so we made money when we bought not later when stocks yes we of course made later but not it was not the point to make money when in real estate go up it was the point was to make money when you buy really put in the effort if you decided to buying as a long-term strategy okay I have stocks I have businesses I have real estate I don't have real estate now but I can take a mortgage because everything is so good try to balance it so that if in case shit hits the fan it's not such a big weight and you can buy another real estate if you can do that buy real estate now don't put everything you have now in a crazy property somewhere in a crazy luxury area that not but small diversification okay this is my pension this is my business these are my stocks these are my real estate then I think if you don't have it take advantage of the low mortgages fixed for 30 years if you can do that then I would really calculate and think about buying thank you for watching looking forward to the comments this is a very interesting topic share your situation you will never know we are here to learn together see you in the next video