Quote from Pa(b)st Prime:
Do you trade?
What happened to builders, self improvement retailers, lenders and commercial suppliers last year? New highs? Hardly.
Have you seen any gross participation to the upside by consumer cyclicals i.e. retailers and restaurants?
There's a litany of stocks trading at 12 times earnings (cheap) in anticipation of further weakness in housing. Those are issues that can pop higher on the hint of RE stabilization.
The traders who move prices saw the slowdown a year before denizens of Yahoo's news page were clued in. Those managers were covering their shorts by the time guy's like you were sellers.
The market's rallying because the world's been short since 2/27. Absent news of a depression there's only one thing markets can do when too many folks are short. Auction higher.
Okay...whatever you say comanche:
http://tinyurl.com/2dvccu
This isn't a minor setback...that seems to be your perspective. If I'm incorrect, sorry. But this is an issue that could really harm many more in its wake.
The RE boom has been largely cited as a large reason for the economic upturn we've had the last few years, hence the growth in that industry. You know how many people's jobs will disappear just because these companies are no longer writing subprime loans and Alt-A loans...50% of loans last year were Alt-A....that's a large percentage of the loans being cut off and the people involved with those processes aren't going to be suddenly finding work in other great sectors!
The housing market was far far overblown and it was the tech bubble in another sector and on another day...but this is much bigger. There are a lot more people involved, a lot more repercussions, and a lot longer of a lasting effect.
http://www.billcara.com/CS Mar 12 2007 Mortgage and Housing.pdf
Check out that report...it breaks open the issues quite nicely.
So you think the prices today reflect the "slowdown" right? Man, you must be right, those geniuses had NEW and LEND pegged with their valuations! They were spot on. Of course a few had it right...there are always the few who have it right. But the masses happily ignore the issues.
Alt-A loans are going to cause a lot more pain because Alt-A loans resetting means loans resetting on more middle class people with more to lose than subprimes did. Up to 25% of Alt-A loans were sold to speculators last year...that's not a small number...speculators with exotic loans that reset to higher rates or that refinance debt from a negative amortizing loans are going to get slaughtered, or they can just walk away...I'm guessing they walk...at risk to their credit and just stick the lenders and loan holders with a bunch of overpriced housing in Bakersfield and Cape Coral.
I don't disagree with you that last year a lot of adjustments were made...you're very right about that. But I think what we saw last year was due to a bit of slowdown...these loan problems are going to be a bigger problem than a natural slowdown. I think lenders squeezed the market and are going to get hit back with some major problems.
