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Are REITS Worth It? - Depends Upon What "It" Is (to paraphrase a former President)

March 17, 2009

Analysis of:Are REITs worth it? | money.cnn.com

A few selected REITS might still be in play, but only if a clear detailed picture of balance sheets, income statements and detailed cash flows are available and up to date. But it will take a lot of investigative homework to find one now. FFO's by themselves meaningless; and are the stock dividends, in lieu of cash, worth the paper they are printed on? Or merely an IRS compliance formality?

Analyzing a PR Piece?

March 16, 2009

Analysis of:Leading property services firm expects worldwide consolidation | www.propertywire.com

Seems more of a public relations piece than an article to analyze 

Gee, an inverse relationship between cost and demand; how novel

March 16, 2009

Analysis of:Mortgage applications jump 11% | money.cnn.com

The President, irrespective whether you are in agreement or not with recent Government actions, had it right when he recently suggested there is too much emphasis on daily announcements of varied statistical releases (speaking on March 12 before the Business Roundtable - source WSJ): "We live in such a rapid-fire information-rich environment that people’s attention spans go like this. And that makes for volatility in confidence. A smidgen of good news, and suddenly everything is doing great. A little bit of bad news — oh, we’re down in the dumps. And I am obviously an object of this constantly varying assessment. (Laughter.) I’m the Object-in-Chief of this varying assessment. (Laughter.)"

Pending Home Sales Drop No Surprise

March 5, 2009

Analysis of:Pending home sales hit record low | money.cnn.com

The current barrage of negative indicators are headline "data dramas". Given the state of economy, capital market(s) freeze, unemployment, and end loan vacuum, just what else was expected?

Everybody Take a Deep Breath

March 2, 2009

Analysis of:Fannie, Freddie to fund part of plan | money.cnn.com

We all know the Government is attempting to stabilize housing, financial markets and the economy in general. From a macro perspective, we can continue to discuss the merits or lack of same to these programs, the propriety of such intervention and the potential consequences.

Finding Equilibrium

February 25, 2009

Analysis of:Housing Prices Tumble 18.5% to Another New Low | www.cnbc.com

Did anyone really expect a continuation of the run up? Probably duped buyers, many uneducated flippers, possibly some finance churners/packagers and some national economists late in their warnings about the housing bubble.

And Should Not Be Helped

February 25, 2009

Analysis of:Who won't be helped by housing fix | money.cnn.com

This article illustrates exactly what went wrong. Even at the upper middle income levels the buyer decision making process was jaundiced. Everyone needs to go back and review the Case-Shiller Indices and review when run-ups occurred and downturns began. The story is within those numbers.

They Would Pronounce Me Dead While Still Breathing

February 25, 2009

Analysis of:Housing Plan: Five Things Investors Need to Know | www.cnbc.com

The Housing Plan will not "bail out" the housing industry nor the investing arena; it was designed to attempt to provide a level of stabilization for defined segments .

Fighting Falling Rents and Sustaining Occupancy

February 23, 2009

Analysis of:Downtown apartment rent falls by most in 7 years (Chicago, IL. USA) | www.chicagorealestatedaily.com

The strong and experienced operators should survive if they pay attention to details. The new players are going to need some help in learning the rental business given current market and economic conditions.

MAI might become MAIN

January 19, 2009

Analysis of:Taming inflated home appraisals | money.cnn.com

We all know the acronym "made as instructed" might legislatively become "made as instructed, not". New governance regulations may mitigate some levels of bad behavior, but just how are residential appraisals going to coherently work?

Trying to make sense out of nonsense

January 14, 2009

Analysis of:S. Housing Market Still Offers Hidden Value | www.bloomberg.com

As this Bloomberg article "spot selects" a few varied markets it suggests (inadvertantly) a primary characteristic of the current residential housing market: no one knows (yet). There is not enough data to construct any significant segments of pricing opportunities/velocity trends.

This is not rocket science

January 14, 2009

Analysis of:KB Home Reports Loss, Says Market Could Worsen | www.cnbc.com

National homebuilding has always been a competitive industry, reliant upon employment, consumer affordability and financing (at both consumer and developer levels). It's a down cycle, period. The over extended builders are going by the wayside. The survivors are exiting markets, reformulating strategies and attempting to shore up financial statements through dispositions of excess land, deeds in lieu, and downsizing.

Fundamentals Ignored During Boom Times

December 29, 2008

Analysis of:KB Pulling Out of Atlanta | www.bigbuilderonline.com

Demographics, traditional underwriting processes and sound project planning ignored during acceleration. Inventory reduction will take time to play out.

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