Can how much cash a company gives to its shareholders determine stock performance? It can if it’s a REIT. REITs are Real Estate Investment Trusts. They give at least 90% of their cash income to shareholders. REITs crashed right along with the real estate market beginning in October
It’s that time of year when housing prices cool off. And sure enough the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index released on Tuesday shows that prices dropped in 19 of the US’s 20 biggest cities tracked by the index. So this isn’t horrible news. It’s expected. And in the game of expectations that drive
I don’t have to remind you that America’s housing market has been hurting for years. But it looks like all of that pain will finally come to an end. Next year analysts expect the housing market to add to GDP for the first time since 2005. Now I’m usually skeptical of the
The Philly Fed issued its report today on regional housing permits. It said, “From September to October, the issuance of residential building permits increased in New Jersey and fell in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and the nation.” But did you know that the Fed also provides a “change log?” So we can see what
Years ago, the suburbs were a shining example of how well Americans lived as they moved up the socioeconomic ladder. But increasingly, the suburbs are starting to look more like Americanized shantytowns.
I’m not sure what took the White House so long to try to help out our millions of underwater homeowners. But I think the upcoming election has something to do with it.
I remember when my parents bought their house in Florida, just like it was yesterday.
The year was 1996. They bought a 1,300 square foot home two miles away from the beach. The cost of that home? About $69,000.
Fast forward ten years, and the average selling price for a home in that same neighborhood was $250,000 – $350,000.
After the real estate bubble burst – in 2008 – foreclosed homes were being sold for (and are still selling for) $79,000 – $90,000.
“Never before has the U.S. consumer – the biggest consumer in the world – been this weak for this long. Never,” says Mr. Roach, a Yale University fellow. The numbers support his bleak assessment. In the past 14 quarters consumer growth has amounted to a measly average of 0.2% per year.
