James-Ct

Home sales are up! The DOW is up 1000 points off its low of three weeks ago! Durable goods sales are up! The rain has stopped! The sun has come out! The evil spell is broken! We're saved! Hurray!! Or is this just the calm before the storm really hits! The government's fiscal incompetence hasn't had time to work its "magic" yet. How much worse can things get? We'll see.

Not unless you have an offsetting New Zealand Kiwi futures play!

Interesting posts. And all true as I see it. Currently rental rates are falling in some areas including where I have properties (Ct). Ct rents are just starting to drop but the trend will speed up quickly this year as tenants become aware they can shop around for better deals as their leases expire. Supply and demand is forcing rents down where houses aren't selling so owners are trying to rent them. Although I've seen a couple of news items about it, there isn't a lot of press about this trend (yet) but I expect there will be more soon. Consumers in general are not buying stuff due to credit drying up and prices falling. Some are waiting for better deals which applies to tenants too. This deflation will give way to inflation soon as the govt prints more money and encourages more consumer and commercial borrowing. A slow increase of inflation is a deliberate part of Fed Reserve policy. Of course, we've seen how competent the Fed has been in doing its job! The fiscal realists predict run-away inflation and possibly hyper-inflation (like some less developed countries experience). But that won't be until employment rises again. As I see it, buying rental properties this year at the right price will be a hedge against the crazy inflationary trend that will start soon. That and buying gold! Good luck, James-Ct

Estimated 2 million jobs will be lost in 2009. Looks like there will be more shake-out in housing for all of 2009 to where we get back to 2001 prices. Most people are not buying much of anything as they watch prices fall, hoping to pick up bargains during this deflationary period. Obama has zero experience at running a viable business so he has surrounded himself with Clinton administration people hoping to exploit their experience. Its a match made in hell, he offers the slick oratorical presentation and his puppeteers pull the strings. The banks in these parts aren't offering any great deals (IMO) yet. They are hoping to minimize the hit they will take when the govt mandates mortgage modifications that will allow people to keep making payments at reduced principal and interest or extended term. The US dollar is in the process of becoming seriously devalued. The good news is that there should be great RE deals this year.

I heard that 50k layoffs were announced today. We'll see if the Dec house sales trend holds up thru Jan/Feb/Mar. I doubt it will.

With tens of thousands of layoffs in the works now, I cannot see how home sales will increase anytime soon. Just the opposite, sales will decline further as more foreclosures happen. I'm not complaining though since REOs will provide even greater REI opportunities by mid 2009 when bungled government meddling in mortgage markets start coming under greater criticism from some politicians and watchdog groups because they won't be solving anything but only wasting taxpayer $. The recent appointments by "The One" of Clinton retreads and his affiliation with some of the architects of the current financial crisis (ex. R. Rubin) will prolong the recovery process while the LaLa land crowd swoons over his handling of the mess. I believe this will offer an extended time frame of REI opportunuties. We must be in heaven! James-Ct

Does Calif. still have the 3 strikes law and is it still enforced?? "Stealing", in its many forms, has been all but de-criminalized in many states as far as serving time in prisons which are too full of violent felons to waste space on these light-weights! Some people just think in criminal ways so, given 2 ways to reach an objective, 1 easy and legal and the other difficult but illegal, the easy and legal way never even occurs to them. James-Ct

Thanks for the tenant checking leads. Some Craigslist responses to my "for rent" ads lead me to believe that the local psycho ward has internet access, so due diligence is certainly in order. James-Ct

I'm waiting to look to buy until February at least. Post election and State-of-the-Union address I think we'll get a better idea of the housing market. What's going on now in the financial markets is going to create big opportunities to buy (IMO), much better than currently. The job lay-offs haven't really started yet and many home-owners living hand to mouth are just hanging on to the false hope that Big Brother is going to save their house. I can't remember a single time when gov't interference in free markets helped anyone but insider fat cats (like the RTC cronies). The Fed meddling will only delay the inevitable housing correction. James-Ct