Articles

Home Buyers Get Boost From Europe Crisis as Loans Drop Under 5%, WSJ

The financial turmoil in Europe is providing an unexpected windfall for American home buyers, as international money seeking a safe haven is flowing into the U.S., pushing domestic mortgage rates to the lowest levels of the year and back near 50-year lows.The housing industry had been bracing for months for a period of rising mortgage rates, triggered by the end of the Federal Reserve's $1.25 trillion mortgage-securities purchase program. Conventional wisdom held that mortgage rates would rise as the Fed pulled back from propping up the market.Instead, many in the industry now say rates could drift as low as 4.5% this summer from 4.86% now, instead of rising to 6% as some economists projected, making for significantly lower payments for Americans buying homes or refinancing their mortgages.
By Nick Timiraos, May 24, 2010 WSJ

Link to article

05/24/10 WSJ

Big Chill in CO Mountain Resorts Home Sales Starting to Thaw, DP

While first-quarter sales in all of Pitkin County were down compared with a year ago, they increased in the Upper Roaring Fork Valley communities of Aspen, Snowmass Village, Woody Creek and Old Snowmass. So far this year, 79 residential properties have closed, a 49 percent increase over the same period a year ago, said Aspen broker Tim Estin of Mason Morse Real Estate."There are some significant bargains here based on trends and prices," Estin said. "I would definitely say the smart money is recognizing that and there are transactions occurring."

COLORADO MOUNTAIN RESORT REAL ESTATE - The mountain real estate market plunged so far last year that it seemed there was practically no place for it to go but up this year.Turns out, that perception is proving to be true.During the first quarter, many resort areas have seen the number of homes sold rise substantially compared with the same period a year ago. While it's a step in the right direction, the market is still not as good as in 2007 or 2008."2009 was so rank and so off, it was just scary," said John Helmering, a broker in the Vail Valley. "Realtors in the Vail Valley have been through the worst time period ever in the history of Vail real estate. This is an improvement, but not from 2008."Still, it's too soon to call the first-quarter rebound a recovery, said Byron Koste, executive director emeritus of the University of Colorado Real Estate Center."It's going to slowly recover as people get confident that the wealth erosion that occurred in '08 and early '09 is really behind them, and they're back to making more money," Koste said. "If there is a rebound to that erosion, it may be short-lived. It's not clear to me that we have any reason to be rebounding, other than we all want to rebound."Still, the improving first-quarter sales have given many mountain real estate professionals a reason to be optimistic.
By Margaret Jackson, May 22, 2010, The Denver Post

Link to article

Property Seen as Safest Asset Class Amongst Rich, BB

"The rich prefer to invest in property, which they see as the safest asset class, and the one with which they are often most familiar", Philippe Sednaoui, chief executive officer of Barclays’s Swiss wealth business, said in an interview at his office in Geneva. “Clients were telling us they were afraid of inflation and property is a good reserve of value, not unlike people investing in gold, but how much gold can you have in a portfolio?” he said.

Gloom of Rich in Japan, U.S. Is Surpassed by Monaco, Barclays Wealth Says...The gloom of wealthy Japanese and U.S. investors about the prospects for the global economy over the next five years is only surpassed by the pessimism of those in Monaco, according to a survey by Barclays Plc. More than half the people in Monaco with more than 1 million pounds ($1.44 million) to invest expect the economy to deteriorate, London-based Barclays Wealth said in a report today. That compares with 35 percent in Japan, 25 percent in the U.S., 17 percent in Switzerland and 16 percent in the U.K.
By Warren Giles, May 23, 2010 Bloomberg

Link to article

Is Art the Next Boom Investment? WSJ

The Market for Major Works Is Heating Up, but Small Investors Can Get Chiseled

On May 4, Pablo Picasso's "Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust" sold for $106.5 million at Christie's in New York, setting the world record for any work of art sold at an auction. Which has art-loving investors wondering: Is the art market exiting its recession? If theft is any gauge of popularity, they can take heart: Five multimillion-dollar works, including pieces by Picasso and Henri Matisse, were found missing from Paris's Musée d'Art Moderne early Thursday. "It looks like the art market is starting to come back," says Michael Moses, a retired professor at New York University's Stern School of Business and co-creator of the widely followed Mei Moses All Art Index. The art world tends to trail the stock market by six to 18 months, he says, which suggests there could be more upside later this year.
By Mary Pilon, May 22, 2010 WSJ

Link to article