Real Estate Red Alert: The Flippers Are Back

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“I think 2014 will be the year when we see that home price appreciation pulls back to more normal, sustainable levels,” says Daren Blomquist, vice-president of RealtyTrac.com, a site that aggregates real estate data. Markets that boomed in 2013 will likely scale back to more modest growth in the low double digits, while nationwide growth should average about 4.5 percent, according to Blomquist.

Even with recent gains factored in, most markets are not at risk right now for another housing bubble. Nationally, home prices remained 4 percent undervalued in the third quarter, according to Trulia?s Bubble Watch. Only Orange County, Calif., and Los Angeles are more than 10 percent overvalued, the report finds.

The hottest markets for 2014 won?t be in the big cities. A joint study of more than 1,000 real estate industry experts done by PwC and the Urban Land Institute ranks real estate prospects in smaller secondary markets including Houston, San Jose, Dallas/Fort Worth and Austin above those in larger cities like Chicago, Atlanta and Washington, D.C., where ?there’s a lot of money chasing a few assets,? says R. Byron Carlock, Jr., PwC national real estate practice leader.

It?s still 35 percent cheaper nationally to buy a home than to rent one, but that doesn?t mean millennials are rushing out to get a mortgage. Just 18 percent of consumers surveyed in September by Credit.com said that buying a house was still their definition of ?the American Dream.?

– See more at: www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2014/01/03/Real-Estate-2014-Need-Know-Guide#sthash.lbcPIoIl.dpuf