Housing Expert: Do Not Buy A Home Until You’ve Watched This! | Jason Oppenheim

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**Jason Oppenheim** (0:30)
So my family has been in real estate for five generations. I started the Oppenheim Group Real Estate Brokerage, done about $4 to $5 billion in transaction volume. So I feel like my experience helps me to see what comes next.

**Graham Stephan** (0:42)
People are arguing now that we're in a real estate bubble.

**Jason Oppenheim** (0:44)
We've had arguably the worst three years ever in real estate. Interest rates keep climbing. Volume is at a historic low. When I say historic low, I mean 50, 60 years.

**Graham Stephan** (0:54)
Do you think buying a home is worth it at today's prices?

**Jason Oppenheim** (0:57)
All these areas that blew up, Miami, Austin, Las Vegas, Nashville, I wouldn't get near those places.

**Jack Selby** (1:04)
Do you think California is doomed?

**Jason Oppenheim** (1:06)
When any one party gets too much control, they veer off track. California is veered off track because it's been dominated too long by people that don't have any pushback and there's really no debate. We spent $24 billion over the last eight years, and the problem has gotten about 40 to 50 percent worse.

**Jack Selby** (1:24)
So what's your investing philosophy for 2025 and 2026? What are you doing with your money?

**Jason Oppenheim** (1:28)
People overanalyze. It's pretty common sense right now.

**Graham Stephan** (1:37)
In terms of the real estate market, people are arguing now that we're in a real estate bubble. What are your thoughts on this?

**Jason Oppenheim** (1:43)
I vociferously disagree. Who the hell says that?

**Graham Stephan** (1:47)
Everyone on Twitter.

**Jason Oppenheim** (1:49)
That's so dumb. There's a lot of dumb on Twitter.

**Jack Selby** (1:52)
So you're saying that sales and everything, they're still continuing to trend up?

**Jason Oppenheim** (1:56)
You mean a real estate bubble, like it's high, it's gonna crash? Yes. I mean, that's the opposite. We've been coming down, prices have been coming down, and volumes have been coming down since late 2021, early 2022 We've had some of the sh-t three years in real estate. I've had some tough years. I mean, it's all relative, but no. The last three years have been really tough because interest rates have been high. Volume has had a historic low. When I say historic low, I mean, 50, 60 years since volumes have been this low. So very historic in terms of the decrease in volume. Prices have come down. I mean, I don't want to speak, I'm not an expert nationally, but nationally, prices are not in a bubble. Big cities post-COVID have had a difficult time, LA, New York. Some cities like Miami and Austin and Las Vegas and Scottsdale.
It's not a political thing, but the big cities in the Democratic States have done terribly. The more red cities, so to speak, like Miami, that's in a red state, they have a pretty moderate governance, have done a lot better because they're low taxation, tough on crime. A lot of people left the big cities during COVID and went to those tertiary areas like in Texas, Miami, and here too.

**Jack Selby** (3:24)
Do you think that's due to policy or do you think that's just due to the nature of a big city being already dense housing?

**Jason Oppenheim** (3:29)
No, it's due to policy. It's due to policy.

**Jack Selby** (3:32)
What big cities are doing?

**Jason Oppenheim** (3:33)
The big cities that had the most draconian COVID policies, I'll use Los Angeles as an example because I live there. They had arguably the most draconian and tough policies in the country. They were the last place in the, LAUSD was the last school district in the United States to open back up.
We restricted our economy so significantly and we let out so many people from jails that a lot of people left. That started it. That started the frustration. Then homelessness blew up. COVID caused tremendous homelessness in Los Angeles. There's no restrictions on that. It's not really enforced. It was a pretty difficult couple of years in LA. We've turned the corner. We're getting a little bit better. But it definitely is policies. I'm not generally political. I consider myself pretty centrist, but I feel like I call a spade a spade. I've been a Democrat most of my life. I'm really independent now. But the truth is, democratic policies have been extremely difficult for large cities. The mansion tax is another one.