Real estate or gold? That is the question. But the answer is kind of easy, isn’t it? Since July of 2011 the price of homes have slowly and steadily increased, and in some areas of the country, there have been 25% to 50% increases over this same time period. But gold has dropped precipitously from over $1,900 per ounce to $1,216 today (update on Nov 12, 2014 with gold at $1,162), which is a 37% dramatic drop. Hence this article about real estate or gold.

Real Estate or Gold

Real Estate or Gold

There is no guarantee that buying your retirement home in Sequim is going to be an investment that immediately begins to appreciate, but there is a high probability that we are at or near a bottom in real estate prices and the high likelihood is that homes are going to slowly appreciate over the next decade until we are back at 2005 price levels. We can’t have that same confidence in the price of gold. What is bothersome about gold is that the gold peddlers have been claiming you need to buy gold every single day since it has fallen 37%. Wow. Could anyone offer worse investment advice? No, but here’s how they claim they never recommended it as an investment. They claim it is a hedge against inflation. Right. Meanwhile they earn a commission every time you buy (or sell) gold. Thank you very much. What would you choose today, real estate or gold?

I strongly recommend buying a conservatively priced home in Sequim as your retirement home. Don’t you think that’s a better idea than buying gold?