Pricewaterhouse Coopers has released its 2016 Emerging Trends in Real Estate report, and as expected, our clients in a Real Estate IRA have some good markets to choose from. Encouragingly, PwC has identified several markets here in the Southeast in the top 100 most attractive markets when it comes to real estate prospects.

For example: Four of the top five most attractive Real Estate IRA markets for investment, development and homebuilding are right here in the Southland. PwC’s researchers ranks the top five markets for overall real estate prospects as follows:

1. Dallas/Fort Worth
2. Austin
3. Charlotte
4. Seattle
5. Atlanta

That’s terrific news for our North Carolina Real Estate IRA clients but there’s more:

Other southern cities that made the grade for PwC include Nashville (#7), Raleigh/Durham (#11), Miami (#19), Washington, DC – District (#24) and Charleston (#25).

Tampa/St. Petersburg comes in at #29, and the Washington DC – Northern Virginia area takes #32, and Baltimore number 35. But Greenville makes it to #38.

Interestingly, Detroit – usually in the top few slots in other rankings we’ve seen in recent years thanks to the deep value possibilities of that depressed market – doesn’t show up until #33. That’s not shabby by a long shot. But that ranking is unusually low for Motor City compared to most of the other lists we’ve seen in recent years.

Orlando, Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach come in at #40, 41 and 44, respectively, with Cape Coral/Fort Myers/Naples in at 46. Louisville is #50.

Looking at our Carolina-area markets, Columbia comes in at a respectable 56.

However, it’s not just the raw number rankings that we find intriguing. It’s also the changes from last year.

Houston, for example, fell from number one down to number 30. A big part of that is probably oil prices.

The big, expensive “gateway” city markets fell as well: San Francisco fell from #3 to #8. Los Angeles, Boston, Manhattan and even Chicago fell as well, compared to last year.

Meanwhile, Miami moved up in the rankings, and Tampa and Orlando both climbed substantially compared to last year, on the strength of economic improvement in the Southeast generally, but also, no doubt, on the natural historic volatility of the Florida region. It always seems to fall most precipitously in busts and zoom most spectacularly in boom times.

The Southeast region should benefit in coming years from retiring northeastern Baby Boomers transitioning to snowbirds buying and renting homes in Florida, at least for part of the year, as well as in Georgia and the Carolinas, where these folks are called “halfbacks.”

That is, they check out Florida and then they go ‘halfway back’ to the Northeast and settle in the Carolinas.

Hey, we’re happy to have them – and North and South Carolina are starting to benefit from this phenomenon, as well as increasing investment and opportunity in our own non-gateway cities, most notably in the well-known ‘Research Triangle.’ Between Raleigh, Chapel Hill and Durham.

Looking to increase diversification and potential returns via direct ownership of real estate within a Real Estate IRA? Contact American IRA, LLC, one of the leading experts in the country on administering real estate transactions and cash flows within retirement accounts. You can peruse a first-in-class library of information at our website, www.AmericanIRA.com, or call us directly at 866-7500-IRA(472).

We look forward to working with you.