Investors would do well to invest in housing markets where jobs are plentiful, says Kathy Fettke, founder and CEO of the Real Wealth Network, a California real estate services and consulting company.

Housing market performance varies around different parts of the country, she tells Newsmax TV in an exclusive interview.

"So often the media talks about a housing market, and . . . there’s no such thing," said Fettke, host of the Real Wealth Show podcast.

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"There are a lot of little neighborhoods across the country, where some are performing differently than others. Some markets are completely overpriced right now. . . . You’ve got to know what you’re doing before you invest anything."

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So how do you determine whether housing prices are fairly valued in a market?

"The most important thing we look at is jobs, and I’m sure that’s the same for any investment," Fettke said. "We’re going to follow the jobs and buy little houses and properties around those jobs. And there are, believe it or not, parts of the country where there’s job creation happening."

But exercise caution investing in an area that doesn't have a diversified job base, she says.

"You have to be careful going to an area where it’s dependent on a certain kind of industry, like North Dakota. A lot of people are buying property there."

The state is benefiting from the booming production of shale oil and gas.

"It makes me nervous," Fettke said. "It’s not diversified enough. In the 19880s, Texas had a huge housing crisis because they were too dependent on the oil industry."

The Lone Star state has diversified impressively since then, she says. "They have the largest job growth in diversified industries in the country."

As for the impact of rising interests on the housing market, "of course things tend to slow down," Fettke said. "And that's the purpose of it, to slow down a growing economy."

With rates near record lows, "we were starting to see bubbles forming where people could afford homes that maybe they couldn't otherwise," she said.

"So if we know interest rates are going to go up, and we do know that, we've got to keep that in mind and always calculate what the payment would be . . . and don't buy [for investment purposes] anything that wouldn't make sense to the average person in that market."

The ideal loan for a home purchaser now would be a 30-year fixed mortgage, Fettke says.

Get it and "keep it forever," she said.

"There is no other country that offers that. . . . Imagine for a moment that you own 10 rental properties on a fixed-rate mortgage. 20 years from now, what is that payment going to feel like versus the rental income you're getting every month?"

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