Salient to Investors: Mortgage REITs tumbled on the expectation that more homeowners would be able to prepay mortgages and because lower yields on new investments would squeeze earnings and dividends. Vitaliy Liberman at DoubleLine Capital said continuation of policies that started last year are basically assured now. Edward Mills at FBR Capital Markets said housing is a clear winner
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Bill Miller at Legg Mason said because housing has done so well, the next move there is in financials. Miller said an improved housing market means banks’ mortgage origination businesses will improve. Miller’s fund had 40 percent of assets in financial stocks as of Sept. 30, and
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Prices for single-family homes rose in 120 of 149 metropolitan areas in Q3 versus 110 areas in Q2. CoreLogic said US home prices rose 5 percent in September from a year ago, the biggest 12-month increase since July 2006. Paul Diggle at Capital Economics said tight supply will mean that house
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Michael Mandel at CompStak said the financial industry, the traditional driver of New York City office rents, is giving way to technology, media and advertising firms, who tend to steer clear of midtown Manhattan’s skyscrapers, preferring the older, low-rise buildings of midtown south, the area roughly between 34th
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Robert Shiller at Yale said the housing recovery is fragile and should be spurred by reducing the role of government in the mortgage-finance system. The economy needs further fiscal stimulus to create jobs, with increases in spending offset by higher taxes on the wealthy to avoid enlarging the national debt. Read the full article
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: As the housing market recovers, neophyte investors are following the lead of private-equity firms like Blackstone, investing in cheap properties they can rent and sell when values rise enough. Lawrence Yun ar NAR said the typical small-size mom-and-pop investor has two or three properties – about 90 percent of
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Jim O’Sullivan at High Frequency Economics said the non-manufacturing part of the economy – the bulk of the economy – is much less weak, while manufacturingis more exposed to weakening foreign growth and exports -overall pretty sluggish growth. Retail Metrics said same-store sales at over 20 companies, excluding drugstores, beat estimates. Americans bought new homes
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: An estimated 12 percent of US residents moved in the year ended March 2012, up from a 63-year low of 11.6 percent the prior year. About 1.7 percent moved from one state to another, the most in five years. A lack of migration the past few years
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: A Berkshire Hathaway unit will be the majority owner of a US residential real- estate affiliate network and Berkshire Hathaway Home Services venture with Brookfield Asset Mgmt. Berkshire has been positioning to benefit from US home market recovery by buying a brickmaker, the loan portfolio of Residential Capital LLC at auction,
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values in 20 cities rose 2 percent from August 2011, the biggest year-to-year gain since July 2010, a sign housing will help drive economic growth. Anika Khan at Wells Fargo Securities said the modest momentum will continue. The average rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate loan was
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