Quote from ddog:
"Also, check out Corona and Temecula. These inland towns are getting a flood of buyers from everywhere."
I was driving through Corona yesterday. A new tract home there will cost you almost $500,000 now. Twenty miles to the east in Riverside they are close to $400,000. Traffic is horrendous out here. Can take close to 45 minutes just to get to the freeway (91) during morning rush hour. Yet homes have been appreciating better than 25% a year for the last 3 years. The home across the street from me was purchased for $300,000 a year ago. Today a simliar home around the corner just went on the market for $405,000.
Greenspan has created quite a monster (real estate included) it seems....
Quote from Richard Hahn's daily today...
Commodity prices are red hot. It remains a political imperative for Greenspan and Bush to temporarily strengthen the dollar to dampen enthusiasm for energy and food commodities, which are reaching painful levels for consumers. One has to assume there will be no interest rate increases until significant job creation appears, which may be many months. The lack of job creation in the presence of massive fiscal and monetary stimulus must be considered an ominous warning flag.
Bond rates are at lows not seen since 1958. This is happening at a time when energy and food commodity prices are pushing to near 20 year highs. This dichotomy is bizarre and can only exist in the artificial environment of a Federal Reserve manipulated intervention. Without a doubt, there must be tremendous stresses developing in the marketplace. At some point, the all powerful Greenspan may lose control of the situation. Today's hero may become tomorrow's goat. From a White House perspective, a scapegoat may be needed prior to the election season.
Greenspan's flood of liquidity has lifted all asset classes. Now the stock market is faltering from recent bubble level valuations, while commodities continue to surge. Now the virtual tax on consumers may work against economic growth. The issue of stagflation is real. It's the worst of all worlds and the negative impact should not be underestimated. The Federal Reserve does not have a set of policy tools capable of arresting stagflation. Greenspan and Bernanke are loath to raise interest rates anytime soon, due to awareness of Japan's 1990's mistake of raising interest rates prior to economic recovery following the post-bubble bear market. This is the most dangerous time of manipulation by the Federal Reserve. The market manipulators need to try to levitate all asset markets while demonstrating diligence on the inflation front. It's a mission impossible! That's why a small group of men cannot successfully alter the natural course of the markets in the long run. The delay of the release of two months of PPI data suggests the government is in a politically unacceptable box.
And from Martin Weiss today...
WEISS COMMENTS
Fed Stimulus Fading
-- March 16, 2004
The Fed stood pat on interest rates today. Clearly, the Fed is caught betwixt and between on interest rates. On the one hand, the Fed is aware that the stimulus effects of previous rate cuts are fading and yet real recovery hasn't gotten underway. On the other hand, it sees growing federal and trade deficits that may force them to raise interest rates swiftly and without warning.
So, for now, the Fed is caught like a deer in oncoming headlights: Unable to move, but dangerously close to disaster. You see, the Fed was depending on its interest rate cuts to stimulate the economy into recovery. And, in concert with tax cuts and other infusions, it looked as if that was happening. But now, nine months after the last rate cut, the refi cash and tax refunds have been spent. Jobs are still not growing at a significant pace. Wages aren't appreciating considerably. And gas and oil prices are rising, cutting into consumers' pocketbooks.
There's not much left for the Fed to do. It has cut rates to about as low as we believe it's willing to go ... as low as it can go. After all, investors -- especially foreign investors -- are going to start demanding higher interest rates in exchange for investing in the U.S., particularly if the stock market slides even more.