LOL. Street? That's for rich folks. With the week I'm having I'm going to be piching a tent on a canal in Sawgrass. It cracks me up Cohiba when I hear such whining about high prices in mega desirable areas. Boohooo I can't afford to live on Star Island or in the Hollywood Hills or LaJolla or the Upper East Side. Most of ET should be shooting for a home in Gary Indiana.........
IYR is experiencing short covering rallies, imo sub-prime mortgage loan problems are bad, but not as bad as first thought, yet.... my guess is a solid bottom has been put in NFI and AHM... not unlike the bottoms that are now in for the home builders, imo.
Ill say it again, when less than 5% of the public can afford a home without extremely low interest rates combined with insanely loose loaning standards, how the hell are homes prices going to go up in hot areas like san diego??? Who's gonna buy them? With the population moving away, and wages flat or down when considering inflation, the only thing supporting this market in my opinion is "panic buying". People who think this is their last chance to ever be able to own a home in the hot area. Also known as bag holders RE market will be very lucky if the economy keeps cruising along so its swimming against a strong current which keeps it propped up. Im already seeing homes selling at 2003 prices around here. Its sporadic. Price per square foot jumps all over the place. Sorta like the volatile top of a quick run up in a NAZ stock before it plummets.
My wife works for Indy Mac bank in accounting. There is a hiring freeze. If someone leaves position stays unfilled. No bonuses and no yearly salary increase. Most of the personal has been moved from Los Angeles (Pasadena) to Austin TX. This is just FYI. Most of the people I know refinancing from Interest only into Pay Option (which is Neg. Am.) just to keep monthly payment low. It is my understanding that not hiring and not increasing salary wages is good for the financial statements and for the stock market. Is it good for housing? What is total percentage of home owners invested in the stock market? Any place to find that info?
http://today.reuters.com/news/artic...RTRIDST_0_GATES-HOLDINGS.XML&rpc=66&type=qcna WASHINGTON, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile , Research) Chairman Bill Gates has shed most of his investments in home builders, as revealed in a quarterly filing of the holdings of his charitable foundation. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust showed a strong interest in the industry, according to a filing in November. It took stakes in at least seven home builders, only to quickly divest in those companies, according to a filing on Wednesday that disclosed the foundation's holdings as of Dec. 31. The overall value of the holdings dropped about 4 percent to $5.9 billion. KB Home (KBH.N: Quote, Profile , Research), Centex Corp. (CTX.N: Quote, Profile , Research), Pulte Homes Inc. (PHM.N: Quote, Profile , Research), Lennar Corp. (LEN.N: Quote, Profile , Research), Beazer Homes USA Inc. (BZH.N: Quote, Profile , Research), Ryland Group Inc. (RYL.N: Quote, Profile , Research), and WCI Communities Inc. (WCI.N: Quote, Profile , Research) were dropped from the list of holdings. A slew of U.S. home builders reported weak quarterly results last month, saying they did not see an inkling of a rebound in the U.S. housing market. Gates, through his foundation, also stepped back from the energy industry, unloading his stakes in AES Corp. (AES.N: Quote, Profile , Research), Chevron Corp. (CVX.N: Quote, Profile , Research), Consolidated Edison Inc. (ED.N: Quote, Profile , Research), Dominion Resources Inc. (D.N: Quote, Profile , Research), Duke Energy Corp. (DUK.N: Quote, Profile , Research) and FPL Group Inc. (FPL.N: Quote, Profile , Research). The foundation also removed Ameren Corp. (AEE.N: Quote, Profile , Research), Brookfield Asset Management Inc. (BAMa.TO: Quote, Profile , Research), Scholastic Corp. (SCHL.O: Quote, Profile , Research) and Univision Communications Inc. (UVN.N: Quote, Profile , Research) from its portfolio's disclosed listings. The Gates Foundation took on an interest in Respironics Inc. (RESP.O: Quote, Profile , Research), reporting a new stake of 500,000 shares in the maker of ventilators and respiratory drug-delivery systems. It also added shares in Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT.N: Quote, Profile , Research), increasing its stake about 50 percent to 1 million shares from 670,000 shares. The foundation increased its holdings in Caterpillar Inc. (CAT.N: Quote, Profile , Research) to 1.32 million shares from 335,000 shares. It upped its holdings in DaimlerChrysler (DCX.N: Quote, Profile , Research) (DCXGn.DE: Quote, Profile , Research) to 1 million shares from 666,000 shares. It reduced its shares in Great Plains Energy Inc. (GXP.N: Quote, Profile , Research) to 775,084 shares from 1.8 million shares, and in IAC/InterActiveCorp. (IACI.O: Quote, Profile , Research) to 50,000 shares from 670,000 shares.
thanks for the prompt response for the source...A very very nice short term capital gain for the Gates' Foundation...Where oh' where will their money flow now...?????
No prob. According to that article, they lost 4% on their homebuilder holdings before unloading their shares. The way I interpret that is a an extreme lack of faith in a turnaround anytime soon for the builders or new home market.