Blog

With the U.S. housing market completely (or at the very least, nearly) recovered, it’s may seem like it’s getting harder and harder to find good investment properties. But the truth is, with the increase in rents, now may still well be a great time to invest in...

A tangential item of note that’s come up a few times is that the size of the average American home is on the rise — in fact, up almost 30% since 1970. And that’s averages — new homes are up 60% compared to the early 70s. One interesting side effect of this is that...

As we reported Friday, it is true that at least statistically it is harder for blacks and hispanics to get mortgages than it is for whites and asians. However, while the news isn’t necessarily good, it’s not completely dire, either. At least we can say that the...

The problem with averages is that pretty much no one is average. While it’s fairly clear that the housing market as a whole has recovered, Business Insider correctly points out that the recovery is divided by age, race, and location. The location part is fairly...

As you’ve seen, the data are up and down on the state of the housing market. The Economist has done an exciting job of aggregating data from Zillow, and producing five interactive charts. The charts cover data from Q1 1980 all the way through Q2 of this year. They...

Freddie Mac reported a $475 million net loss for Q3  That net loss is actually based on a $4.2 billion gross loss on derivative investments. What’s a little weird about this is that the derivative investments were a hedge against interest rate fluctuations. But of...

As you may recall, there was much uproar at the time of the mortgage crisis, blaming Standard & Poor’s ratings firm for making false statements about risky mortgage “derivative” products. A federal appeals court had originally ruled in favor of S&P in a...

Aside from a few people of the long-term-planning persuasion who start holiday shopping on December 26th, most of us aren’t quite ready to get into shopping just yet. Still, shopping for friends and family is different than shopping  for yourself … or your home. The...

It’s widely known (and he’s written about it many, many times himself) that when Warren Buffett invests in a stock, he does so after thorough research, and for the long haul. Essentially, he ignores short-term news. We’ve reported several times recently on the...

The housing market seems to be increasingly in good shape, as this blog has reported recently. However, “in good shape” means different things to different people. The construction industry is booming, if you look at the number of housing starts. However, if you look...