Most Popular
1. Banking Crisis is Stocks Bull Market Buying Opportunity - Nadeem_Walayat
2.The Crypto Signal for the Precious Metals Market - P_Radomski_CFA
3. One Possible Outcome to a New World Order - Raymond_Matison
4.Nvidia Blow Off Top - Flying High like the Phoenix too Close to the Sun - Nadeem_Walayat
5. Apple AAPL Stock Trend and Earnings Analysis - Nadeem_Walayat
6.AI, Stocks, and Gold Stocks – Connected After All - P_Radomski_CFA
7.Stock Market CHEAT SHEET - - Nadeem_Walayat
8.US Debt Ceiling Crisis Smoke and Mirrors Circus - Nadeem_Walayat
9.Silver Price May Explode - Avi_Gilburt
10.More US Banks Could Collapse -- A Lot More- EWI
Last 7 days
Stock Market Volatility (VIX) - 25th Mar 24
Stock Market Investor Sentiment - 25th Mar 24
The Federal Reserve Didn't Do Anything But It Had Plenty to Say - 25th Mar 24
Stock Market Breadth - 24th Mar 24
Stock Market Margin Debt Indicator - 24th Mar 24
It’s Easy to Scream Stocks Bubble! - 24th Mar 24
Stocks: What to Make of All This Insider Selling- 24th Mar 24
Money Supply Continues To Fall, Economy Worsens – Investors Don’t Care - 24th Mar 24
Get an Edge in the Crypto Market with Order Flow - 24th Mar 24
US Presidential Election Cycle and Recessions - 18th Mar 24
US Recession Already Happened in 2022! - 18th Mar 24
AI can now remember everything you say - 18th Mar 24
Bitcoin Crypto Mania 2024 - MicroStrategy MSTR Blow off Top! - 14th Mar 24
Bitcoin Gravy Train Trend Forecast 2024 - 11th Mar 24
Gold and the Long-Term Inflation Cycle - 11th Mar 24
Fed’s Next Intertest Rate Move might not align with popular consensus - 11th Mar 24
Two Reasons The Fed Manipulates Interest Rates - 11th Mar 24
US Dollar Trend 2024 - 9th Mar 2024
The Bond Trade and Interest Rates - 9th Mar 2024
Investors Don’t Believe the Gold Rally, Still Prefer General Stocks - 9th Mar 2024
Paper Gold Vs. Real Gold: It's Important to Know the Difference - 9th Mar 2024
Stocks: What This "Record Extreme" Indicator May Be Signaling - 9th Mar 2024
My 3 Favorite Trade Setups - Elliott Wave Course - 9th Mar 2024
Bitcoin Crypto Bubble Mania! - 4th Mar 2024
US Interest Rates - When WIll the Fed Pivot - 1st Mar 2024
S&P Stock Market Real Earnings Yield - 29th Feb 2024
US Unemployment is a Fake Statistic - 29th Feb 2024
U.S. financial market’s “Weimar phase” impact to your fiat and digital assets - 29th Feb 2024
What a Breakdown in Silver Mining Stocks! What an Opportunity! - 29th Feb 2024
Why AI will Soon become SA - Synthetic Intelligence - The Machine Learning Megatrend - 29th Feb 2024
Keep Calm and Carry on Buying Quantum AI Tech Stocks - 19th Feb 24

Market Oracle FREE Newsletter

How to Protect your Wealth by Investing in AI Tech Stocks

Why the U.S. Housing Market Is “Home Sweet Home”

Housing-Market / US Housing Jan 21, 2013 - 11:17 AM GMT

By: InvestmentContrarian

Housing-Market

George Leong writes: It was extremely difficult times for homeowners following the subprime mortgage implosion that helped to drag down the global economy in 2008. I recall how easy it was to get a mortgage without even having to provide an income or work history to the lenders. When an entry-level worker at McDonalds Corporation (NYSE/MCD) can get a mortgage with no questions asked, you have to wonder how long it might be before a housing bubble surfaces.


Luckily, after several years of the housing market being dragged through the mud, the current situation has vastly improved to the point where housing stocks are hot.

The declining mortgage rates have helped. The $40.0 billion in mortgage-buying by the Federal Reserve each month has driven down the cost of interest rates to record lows.

More people are working now, and with the jobs picture improving (albeit, at a slow pace), I expect the housing market will continue to strengthen.

Wherever you live, it’s clear the housing market is displaying much-improved industry metrics. We just saw another strong housing starts and building permits reading.

In December, there were an impressive 954,000 annualized starts, which is above the Briefing.com estimate of 880,000 and November’s 851,000.

Also lending support to the housing market recovery was a strong building permits reading of 903,000 in December, beating the Briefing.com estimate of 880,000 and September’s 900,000. The strong reading indicates that builders are expecting a good flow of buying in the housing market, and this could only bode well for homebuilder stocks.

Home prices, representing another key piece of the housing market, are edging higher, with the S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. Home Price Index, comprising the 20 largest U.S. metropolitan cites, increasing a better-than-expected 4.3% in October; this number represents the ninth straight up month for home prices. When prices rise, I expect more spending by homeowners due to the subsequent rise in wealth.

The improvement in the housing market is also showing up in the results of numerous homebuilder stocks.

Technical analysis of the S&P Homebuilders Select Industry Index (NYSEArca/XHB) chart below shows its upward trend from its October 2011 bottom to its current high. The upward break around the $22.00-level was bullish due to the topping action that was evident.


Chart courtesy of www.StockCharts.com

The NAHB Housing Market Index reported a strong reading of 47 in December, in line with the Briefing.com estimate and the Index’s reading in November. What is interesting is that the reading is approaching the 50-level, not reached since April 2006, over six years ago.

I expect housing to continue to improve, especially if the jobs market improves.

At this juncture, if you hold some of the hot homebuilder stocks, I would be taking some money off of the table after the run-up in the housing market stocks.

Source: http://www.investmentcontrarians.com/stock-market/why-the-housing-market-is-home-sweet-home/1267/

By George Leong, BA, B. Comm.
www.investmentcontrarians.com

Investment Contrarians is our daily financial e-letter dedicated to helping investors make money by going against the “herd mentality.”

George Leong, B. Comm. is a Senior Editor at Lombardi Financial, and has been involved in analyzing the stock markets for two decades where he employs both fundamental and technical analysis. His overall market timing and trading knowledge is extensive in the areas of small-cap research and option trading. George is the editor of several of Lombardi’s popular financial newsletters, including The China Letter, Special Situations, and Obscene Profits, among others. He has written technical and fundamental columns for numerous stock market news web sites, and he is the author of Quick Wealth Options Strategy and Mastering 7 Proven Options Strategies. Prior to starting with Lombardi Financial, George was employed as a financial analyst with Globe Information Services. See George Leong Article Archives

Copyright © 2013 Investment Contrarians- All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors.

Investment Contrarians Archive

© 2005-2022 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.


Post Comment

Only logged in users are allowed to post comments. Register/ Log in