This comes via Brown Bothers Harriman’s Win Thin (no link available):
South Africa’s ruling ANC said that it was open to discussing demands by its labor union allies to nationalize its mines.  This is an astounding admission, and confirms our worst political fears with regards to the new Zuma administration.  First, they get rid of respected [...]

When we saw the Case-Shiller data for April on Tuesday, I noted that New York was the most overpriced metro area in the Composite-20 as prices there were still 70% above January 2000 levels.  This is changing fast.  Bloomberg reports:
Manhattan apartment prices dropped for the first time since 2002 in the second quarter as the [...]

The S&P/Case Shiller Home Price Indices for April 2009 were released today.  The Composite-10 and Composite-20 indices showed a 18.0% and 18.1% decline respectively, making the data less bad than in the previous month.  Nevertheless, there is still considerable weakness, particularly in former bubble cities like Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Miami.  There, prices have been [...]

On the same day that the worst economic growth numbers in the U.K. in 51 years, we also get some news that the British economy may be stabilising. Well, at least house prices seem to be stabilising as Nationwide reported a 0.9% increase in house prices in UK June.  That is the third rise in [...]

This morning I was reading Simon Johnson’s excellent post “President Obama’s Regulatory Reforms Announcement: A Viewer’s Guide” about what Barack Obama should say when he makes his regulatory reform pitch today at 12:30 PM.  I agree with what he has to say about the need to re-assure us his ‘administration ‘gets it.’  And I suggest [...]

Jim Cramer is not just calling a stock market bottom, but now he’s calling a housing bottom too.  In fact, he says go buy a house.  “Buy a house and buy Bank of America too?”  Cramer says: “This is patently obvious.”
Take a look and tell me what you think.  Personally, I know his stock picking [...]

Is the housing market in the U.K. bottoming?  Many pundits are talking as if it is and now we get the Nationwide data for May 2009 which shows a second rise in three months.  I am sceptical that we are at a bottom, so let’s see what the Halifax data say.
Fionnuala Earley has moved on.  [...]

If you thought house prices were about to show some price gains, think again.  The Case-Shiller Home Price Index for March 2009 was released this morning and it paints a fairly grim picture.  The Composite-10 index shows an18.6% decline in prices over the last year, while the Composite-20 registered a 18.7% drop in that time.  [...]

When you think about property, you should really be looking at its worth as the present value of future cash flow streams.  This is true for residential, commercial, rental or travel property.  One reason is that property is fungible, meaning what is a owner-occupied primary residence ca just as easily be a rental accommodation. It [...]

After a blip in the data last month, Nationwide is reporting that U.K. house prices have resumed their fall.  However, for the second month in a row, the annual price fall has slowed.  In March, the fall was 15.7%. This month we see only 15.0% compared to prices in April 2008.
Fionnuala Earley, the Nationwide’s Chief [...]