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Strategies & Market Trends : Booms, Busts, and Recoveries -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TobagoJack who wrote (61110)	3/17/2005 3:52:11 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 74559

Jay, I haven't bothered looking at housing investments, but your handy-dandy link tempted me. It does look as though there's a big bust coming. finance.yahoo.com That big rise starts right on the button when Uncle Al KBE slashed interest rates to ribbons and Americans went hog-wild borrowing and buying houses and using those houses to buy a lot more too [of a consumer nature such as holidays and gas guzzling dirty great Yank Tank SUVs]. Holy Moly, more of the same: finance.yahoo.com Hmmm, you could well be on to something. And as you say, same again finance.yahoo.com I'm sure the managers of those companies aren't all investing geniuses. I'm sure they have done it all on borrow and hope. I assume their business is building houses. Hmmm. We agree again. Even with financial relativity effects, and P:E under 10, they are out of orbit. It's weird when we agree. Something is amiss. Mqurice

To: TobagoJack who wrote (61110)	3/21/2005 9:59:00 PM
From: pezz	Read Replies (8) \| Respond to of 74559

Today's report. Friday and today sold off the last of my RDCM average 2.85 paid 2.83 <<I purchased more Puts on housing, not as insurance, but as a speculation>> Some day this is gonna be the right thing to do. I just don't know when.

To: TobagoJack who wrote (61110)	3/24/2005 3:29:57 PM
From: Taikun	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

This will drive them up. Just like the Japanese when the Americans came. They all turned their back to the cliff, and , father mother and children linking hands, they marched backwards. Unable to see the death that would meet them The pile of bones is a tourist attraction, just like DotCom shares are now, and just as these homies will be in a couple of years. ECONOMIC REPORT Sales of new homes 2nd highest level Inventory of new homes rises to record 444,000 in Feb. By Rex Nutting, MarketWatch Last Update: 11:17 AM ET March 24, 2005 E-mail it \| Print \| Discuss \| Alert \| Reprint \| RSS WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Sales of new homes jumped about 9.4 percent in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.226 million, the Commerce Department estimated Thursday. MARKETWATCH TOP NEWS U.S. stocks get GE lift; data calm inflation fears GE ups Q1 profit view after Genworth offering U.S. Feb. new home sales rise to 2nd highest ever Yahoo's biggest Net stock buyback Lexar shares more than double on damages award Free! Sign up here to receive our After the Bell Report e-Newsletter! TRADING CENTER Get up to 100 commission-free trades TRACK THESE TOPICS My Portfolio Alerts Company: Toll Brothers, Inc. Add Create Column: Economic Report Create Company: D.R. Horton, Inc. Add Create Company: Lennar Corporation Add Create Get breaking news sent directly to your in-box Edit My Portfolio \| Edit Alerts The sales rate is the second highest, matching December's pace and just below October's record 1.304 million. It was the largest percentage increase in four years. Economists were expecting a small increase to about 1.14 million, according to a survey conducted by MarketWatch. See Economic Calendar. The supply of new homes on the market rose to a record 444,000, representing a 4.4-month supply at the February sales pace. In January, the inventory had spiked to a 4.6-month supply. Read the full release. In separate releases on Thursday, the Commerce Department said new orders for durable goods increased 0.3 percent in February, while shipments of durables fell at the fastest rate in 18 months. See full story. Also, the Labor Department said first-time jobless claims rose by 3,000 to 324,000 in the latest week. See full story. Home sales and new construction have remained very robust despite increases in mortgage rates. Sales of existing homes dipped slightly in February to a still-strong 6.79 million annual pace, a realtors group reported Wednesday. See full story. "We are seeing very strong demand in our communities," said Joel Rassman, executive vice president and chief financial officer for Toll Brothers (TOL: news, chart, profile) , a luxury homebuilder. He said his company has been setting weekly sales records nearly every week this quarter. Homebuilder stocks were higher following the report. Toll Bros. shares rose $1.43 to $77.43. D.R.Horton (DHI: news, chart, profile) , Lennar (LEN: news, chart, profile) and Hovnanian Enterprises (HOV: news, chart, profile) were all up more than 2 percent. Mortgage rates have risen sharply since February to around 6 percent. Economists for housing and real-estate groups say they believe rising incomes and continued appreciation in home values will keep demand strong even as interest rates rise. Others worry that low interest rates and lack of other investment opportunities have fueled a bubble in housing, bringing in speculators to push demand - and prices - higher than justified by fundamentals. The median sales price rose by 5.1 percent year-over-year to $230,700 in February. The average sales price rose 9.2 percent to $288,400. Prices are going up for one reason, Rassman said: Demand is greater than supply, which is restricted by local government regulations. The government cautions that its housing data are particularly prone to sampling and other statistical errors. It can take six months to establish a new trend in home sales. In February, the six-month average sales rate was a record 1.210 million, up from 1.199 million in January. In February, sales rose in all four regions of the country. Sales in the South climbed 9 percent to a record 619,000 annual rate. Sales increased about 20 percent in the Northeast, 10 percent in the Midwest and about 7 percent in the West. Rex Nutting is Washington bureau chief of MarketWatch. marketwatch.com