Our financial system is crumbling this week.

[thrill]

TED Spread has reduced greatly for three days straight. Keep crossing the fingers.

[sighyoung]

TED Spread has reduced greatly for three days straight. Keep crossing the fingers.

I do not wish to see TED spread.

[Leroy]

TED Spread has reduced greatly for three days straight. Keep crossing the fingers.

I do not wish to see TED spread.

Make sure your google safe search is on.

[Hungary Jack]

The WSJ reported some good news from California this morning. Housing sales were up 65% over a year earlier. The market may be at bottom in CA, which was the site of same of the greatest lending and speculative excess. The flip side of this is that homeowners and banks are now realizing (through comparable sale prices) just how many mortgages are under water.

[Arthur Dent]

The WSJ reported some good news from California this morning. Housing sales were up 65% over a year earlier. The market may be at bottom in CA, which was the site of same of the greatest lending and speculative excess. The flip side of this is that homeowners and banks are now realizing (through comparable sale prices) just how many mortgages are under water.

I hope that's true but the number seems suspicious. Maybe selective endpointing? I'd like to see the entire trend. Indeed, from the same article:

"But the bottom still may not be in sight. Home prices in California could end down as much as 60% from peak values, according to recent research from both Barclay's PLC and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. Towns like Los Banos may have further to fall. According to the city and a local title office, roughly 2,000 of 10,000 homes in the town are in the foreclosure process. The city expects that number could grow before the crisis passes."

[Hungary Jack]

The WSJ reported some good news from California this morning. Housing sales were up 65% over a year earlier. The market may be at bottom in CA, which was the site of same of the greatest lending and speculative excess. The flip side of this is that homeowners and banks are now realizing (through comparable sale prices) just how many mortgages are under water.

I hope that's true but the number seems suspicious. Maybe selective endpointing? I'd like to see the entire trend. Indeed, from the same article:

"But the bottom still may not be in sight. Home prices in California could end down as much as 60% from peak values, according to recent research from both Barclay's PLC and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. Towns like Los Banos may have further to fall. According to the city and a local title office, roughly 2,000 of 10,000 homes in the town are in the foreclosure process. The city expects that number could grow before the crisis passes."

Right, but the fact that people are starting to buy homes out of foreclosure suggests that prices are nearing a bottom. Perhaps it is only the first wave of bargain hunters, and prices will fall more in certain fringe markets like Los Bandos, but the data suggests that perhaps we have reached an inflexion point. More foreclosures will almost certainly follow as borrowers and lenders start to get a sense of the true market value of the properties and many borrowers decide that their house is simply not worth buying at the price agree upon 1,2,3 years ago. But I view this as all part of the work out process that needs to occur to bring prices and demand back in line.

[Diddy]

so if someone (diddy) had some money to invest right now where are some good places to look? I know nothing about the stock market but figure getting in when things are down is smart?

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

so if someone (diddy) had some money to invest right now where are some good places to look? I know nothing about the stock market but figure getting in when things are down is smart?

I would think, though I don't explicitly know this to be fact, that you could buy some pretty sweet things from banks right now for pretty cheap prices and then turn around and sell it.

One example would be subdivisions. Banks lent money to developers who went belly up a couple years ago when the bubble burst. Some of the developers left everything including equipment on the site and just up and went to Mexico/elsewhere to avoid collectors.

Anyway, the banks ended up with unfinished developments/subdivisions. In turn, they finish them up as cheaply as possible and look to sell them. Of course, no one wants a subdivision right now though. But, eventually everything will pick back up and housing as well as new development will be profitable again. Since the banks just want to get these ugly investments off their books, they're highly motivated sellers. You could buy some of this land, sit on it for a couple years without really doing anything and then sell it when values pick back up. And, you're getting it for a heavily discounted price to start. But, that takes capital and time.

Of course, you could also just load a bunch of money into something like the Growth Fund of America or Goldman Sachs Large Cap and try to go that route.

[Dillagii]

so if someone (diddy) had some money to invest right now where are some good places to look?

In Dillagii's pocket.

[sighyoung]

so if someone (diddy) had some money to invest right now where are some good places to look?

In Dillagii's pocket.

I suggest a sighyoung hedge fund against losses from DiLLaGii's pocket.