Since January of this year, the number of homes purchased by cash buyers and investors has fallen by 26 percent, despite record affordability that you might expect to draw new real estate investment buyers into the market. According to a report by Capital Economics, this “dampened activity” is directly attributable to an uncertain investment climate, and the lack in activity is unlikely to be made up by first-time and repeat homebuyers thanks to “widespread negative equity and high unemployment”[1]. Since January these parties’ buying volume has increased by only two percent.

Furthermore, the data firm predicts that mortgage rates will “soon fall below four percent” while housing prices, which would otherwise be stabilizing, have “yet to respond fully to the recent weakening in consumer and investor demand.” The group has already predicted that the nation’s treasury bills will probably yield only 1.5 percent by the end of 2011 and remain there “through 2013” thanks to uncertainty about inflation[2].

As is usually the case when uncertainty plays a major role in investing scenarios, it is starting to look like investors are pulling away from the real estate market. What do you think can be done about this? Can the market recover without them?

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[1] http://www.dsnews.com/articles/cash-buyers-and-investors-take-fright-capital-economics-2011-09-15

[2] http://www.investmentweek.co.uk/investment-week/news/2109162/capital-economics-bills-yield-2013