Salient to Investors: Caroline Baum writes: The residential real-estate market has just got going and only in the last 2 years has residential investment contributed in any significant way to economic growth. July single-family housing starts of an annual rate of 591,000 is a long way from the peak of 1.8 million
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Brian Jones at Societe Generale said the rate of growth of home prices is certainly slowing, but is still posting respectable year-over-year increases and housing is in good shape. S&P/Case-Shiller say the year-over-year gauge provides better indications of trends in home prices. All 20 cities in the index
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Fareed Zakaria said: The distinctive feature of the American system is how undemocratic it is. Three co-equal branches of government and the one with the final say on many issues is composed of 9 unelected men and women. The Senate, the most unrepresentative upper house in the
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Adrian Miller at GMP Securities said 2 weeks of Fed-speak have laid the foundation for a September tapering. Bill Gross at Pimco said no more QE mean no more bull markets. The 30-year bond yield was 3.91 percent on August 19, the most since August 2011. Vincent Chaigneau at Societe Generale said 10-year
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Jeremy Grantham said: The biggest issue we face is deterioration of the environment, particularly climate damage. In the US, the biggest problem is coal and tar sands. If we burn half or more of the coal and tar sands in two areas in North America, there is
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Miller Samuel said: Listings for NY non-luxury apartments – homes under $3 million and 90 percent of the market – have fallen by over 36 percent year-over-year in each of the last 3 quarters, the biggest declines in 12 years of record keeping. Inventory in the top 10 percent
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: DataQuick said home sales priced at over $1 million rose an average of 37 percent in half1, 2013 from a year earlier to the highest level since 2007, and versus 11 percent for houses priced under $1 million. Susan Wachter at Wharton said wealthy purchasers are diving into real estate a
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Private-equity managers from Fortress Investment to Blackstone say now is the time to exit investments as stocks rally and interest rates start to rise. Wesley Edens at Fortress said he is preparing holdings for public offerings while struggling to find attractive new deals. Pete Briger at Fortress said the environment extends
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Investors are cooling on the fledgling US homes-for-rent industry. IPO American Homes 4 Rent was little changed in its first day of trading after raising almost 44 percent less than estimated in its initial prospectus in June and at the low-end of the offering range. The two other REITs that have
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Miller Samuel and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate report home sales in New York’s Hamptons in Q2 were up 25 percent from a year earlier and the most since Q2 2006, while the median price rose 8.2 percent to $920,000. The absorption rate was 7 months, the
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