One of the Trading Rules identified by Dennis Gartman of The Gartman Letter states that there is never only just one cockroach. If you see one, you know more are hiding in the walls and behind the counters. Investors who seek to beat the market should carefully consider this principle when they are considering investments […]

It seems that of late that a major topic being covered by the mainstream media is “sub-prime” mortgages and the related scare of the downstream impact. Well, the charts warned of problems in the home building sector a year and a half ago. In fact, I first reported in October 2005 that the charts were […]

At the risk of being all subprime, all the time, this week we look at what I think are the real risks for the economy as a result of the subprime debacle. How can one side say it is a contained risk (and in one sense it is) and not a problem for the economy […]

Year-round sunshine and fabulous beaches mean that Brazil has long been considered a great holiday destination, but is it also a good place to buy property? Brazil’s economy has enjoyed steady growth over the past few years, helped by the commodity boom.
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TOKYO — Land prices in Japan rose last year for the first time since the so-called “Bubble Economy” burst in 1990, government data showed Thursday, indicating that the long era of real estate deflation may be coming to an end. Residential land prices gained 0.1 per cent on average in 2006, while commercial land prices […]

Lee Tillcock, Editor of Business Moneyfacts comments: “The last year has seen a raft of legislation impacting on the buy-to-let sector, with more new rules and regulations still to be implemented. So far the new regulation has covered areas to protect both the landlord’s and tenant’s rights. However lenders and borrowers should also be aware […]

On March 15, IndyMac released a rather lengthy press release claiming that it had been inappropriately categorized by many media sources as a subprime lender. IndyMac stated that it is primarily a prime/Alt-A mortgage lender with minimal exposure to subprime.  With the subprime lenders in melt-down mode, it is quite understandable why IndyMac would want […]

The stock market is about to crash. The only question is whether it will quickly fall down the elevator shaft or follow the jerky flight-path of a man pushed down a stairwell. Either way, the outcome will be the same; stocks will nose-dive, the dollar will plummet, and the bruised US economy will be splattered […]

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti economic commentator Mikhail Khmelev) - Investing in real estate is one of the most attractive and profitable ways of making money everywhere.
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The last few weeks have been disastrous for the major homebuilders and mortgage lenders. The stocks have been crushed across the board. I’m not talking about a few percentage points. I’m talking about …
A 45% plunge in subprime mortgage company Fremont General (NYSE: FMT) in just 12 trading days …
A whopping 87% five-day collapse in […]

The series of rises in UK interest rates over the past 9 months from 4.5% to 5.25% has started to have an impact on the UK housing market, according to a survey by Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ (RICS).The gain for February is the slowest in over 9 months,

However, earlier in the month, the Halifax […]

“Millions at risk of losing homes” was the headline on the news wires on Wednesday, March 14.  This happened on the day when the stock market showed a positive intraday reversal on strong trading volume.  Obviously, the stock market wasn’t put off by this negative piece of news.
If it were true that millions of Americans […]

With the meltdown in the sub-prime mortgage sector now laid bare, many on Wall Street desperately cling to the notion that the pain will be localized. The prevalent delusion is that the overall mortgage, housing and stock markets will be little impacted by the carnage ravaging the sub-prime sector.
As such, renewed stock market weakness is […]

As house prices fall, repossession rates rise. Unless the lenders wake up to their dilemma…
“UK HOUSE PRICES to recover next year,” said The Times of London on 17 November, 1989.
Real estate in the United Kingdom had risen three times over on average during the previous 10 years. National prices rose 40% in the last 18 […]

Mortgage Bankers Association Chief Economist, Douglas Duncan, believes that mortgage activity is set to dip and that “there’s no question that the decline in [mortgage] volume will reveal excess capacity”. Although Mr. Duncan isn’t painting on overly grim picture, it is worth pointing out that he offered this negative outlook more than 3-years ago …
Nearly […]

The Associated Press reports that “Late Mortgage Payments Jump to 3 1/2 Year High, New Foreclosures Hit All-Time High
WASHINGTON (AP) — Late mortgage payments shot up to a 3 1/2-year high in the final quarter of last year and new foreclosures surged to a record high as borrowers with tarnished credit histories had trouble keeping […]

This week we look at the possible latest entry into the hedge fund world, The People’s Republic of China; review the cockroach principle of subprime mortgages; and investigate the possibility of whether we need more derivatives and not less than the $283 trillion or so we now have. It’s a lot to cover, but it […]

I told you about the housing sales and pricing declines before they happened …
I told you that the subprime mortgage industry would end in disaster before the stocks blew up …
And today, I want to tell you about the next major group of companies that I think are going to get hit from […]

As always, the market’s way ahead of the Fed…
BEN BERNANKE told politicians in Washington this week that the collapse of subprime mortgage companies had been “contained”.
   Perhaps Dr. Ben was just thinking of Fremont delaying its fourth-quarter results…or New Century Financial (NEW) having to restate its earnings for the first nine months of last year.
   […]

Chart 1 shows that the national homeownership rate (the percentage of occupied housing units that are owner occupied housing units) started rising sharply around 1995, hitting a record high in 2004. Why this sudden rise in homeownership?
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