The Housing Mess; Europe Gets Uglier; FED Meeting; The Trillion $ Retirement Problem and More

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  6/19/12
  Housing
  Many tell me I am unreasonable in my negative outlook on housing for not only the next few years, but at least for a decade. I am willing to admit that certain hot markets like mid to lower Manhattan, or Greenwich, Connecticut do exist as the rare exceptions to an otherwise moribund housing picture. For the very wealthy who don’t need to be concerned with a 20% downpayment things are peachy, for the rest of mainstreet America it is a different story.
  The hyperster housing folks have more to work with today, or do they? Housing starts plunged from a revised 744K to 708K. Actual completions fell by a whopping 10%. Permits (promises to build at some future point) soared from 723K to an annualized rate of 780K. Let’s see first if the permits result in higher start numbers in the months ahead. June 30^th marks the 3^rd anniversary of Cramer’s proclamation that the bottom housing was in. LOL.
  Related and Supplemental: construction sector has been losing jobs for 5 months straight.. http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/USCONS
  European UnDelight
  Anyone start the day off buying 1 year Spanish bills with a record yield of 5.07? Last week’s “Spailout” of €125 billion received an underwhelming response because Spain really needs much, much more. 
  
  
  PLEASE READ MORE: http://www.certifiedassets.com/inv/news/the-housing-mess-europe-gets-uglier-fed-meeting-the-trillion-retirement-problem-and-more/