Salient to Investors: Harry Dent writes: All the signs point to the end of the global bubble. The greatest trigger will be the bursting of the massive, unprecedented China bubble. China’s stock market loss of 35% in less than 30 days signals its stock bubble has peaked: a drop of 30% to 40%
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Cash transactions accounted for 24% versus 33% a year ago. Investors, 63% of whom paid cash, were 14% of the market last month versus 19% in September 2013. Foreclosures and short sales were 10% of the total. First-time buyers accounted for 29% versus the historical average of 40%. The average
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: DJ Busch at Green Street Advisors said the Washington Prime/Glimcher Realty Trust deal may spark further consolidation among owners of “B” malls as there are many benefits to scale. Jerry Bruni at J.V. Bruni said lower-tier malls are a better bargain than pricey luxury properties, and owning the
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Tony James at Blackstone said hedge funds are a way to play the stock market with lower volatility and lower returns – shoot-the-lights-out returns are best left to private equity and real estate. Neil Chriss at Hutchin Hill Capital said Calpers’ hedge-fund allocation was not big enough to
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau reports the share of Americans 65 and older with mortgage debt rose to 30% in 2011 with a median debt adjusted for inflation of $79,000, from 22% in 2001 with a median debt of $43,400. The increase in mortgage debt makes these households more susceptible
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Thomas Simons at Jefferies said new-home sales have no traction whatsoever but overall housing data is encouraging, with everything moving in the right direction, though a little more slowly. New-home sales are tabulated when contracts are signed, and so are a more timely barometer than transactions on existing homes.
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: TransUnion said as much as 20% of home equity lines of credit are at increased risk of default as they switch from interest-only to include principal, causing monthly payments to rise more than 50%. Ezra Becker at TransUnion said more than half of the outstanding HELOCs have
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: European countries including the UK, Denmark and Switzerland are enacting policies to stem housing bubbles, yet with German mortgage volumes at the highest in 16 years, Germans are taking out smaller home loans and repaying them faster as prudent borrowers and lenders bet that record-low interest rates
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: RealtyTrac said properties with a default, auction or repossession notice are at the lowest since July 2006, a month before prices peaked and then collapsed. Daren Blomquist at RealtyTrac said foreclosures are more like a troublesome gnat than a mortal threat to the housing market. Lawrence Yun
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Jay Morelock at FTN Financial said the ‘big recovery’ has turned out not to be, and expects a stabilization but not a crash or acceleration. Brad Hunter at Metrostudy said starts in the South may have been hurt by a shortage of buildable lots as development was
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