Louis's Blog

The second biggest real estate myth is the oft repeated refrain that a lack of housing inventory has held back the real estate recovery. The biggest real estate myth, one that has also been peddled incessantly, is that there is a housing recovery in the first place. As we have stated many times o...

Real Estate News   Should the Stock and Real Estate Market Drive The Economy or Should it Be the Other Way Around? The purposes of quantitative easing (QE) – to raise the stock and real estate markets to create a wealth effect to “fix” the economy – are discussed. Both markets are at or near thei...

 Real Estate News There is a hole in the housing bubble balloon that can’t be patched. The one (and only) undeniable feature of the current housing “recovery” has been rising home prices. That one pillar of the housing recovery is now threatened by home affordability. The Fed created false econom...

Podcast 28:10-33:00 Discussion of what can throw off the Fed's plans. Russia and China have been buying enormous amounts of gold in the past few years. Both countries are making plans to reduce their reliance on the US dollar. This would have the effect of reducing demand for the dollar and causi...

Last year as the price of gold declined for the first time in twelve years, we noted that physical demand for gold increased, especially from Asia and primarily China. Chinese housewives scooped up gold on the retail level and China on the national level added thousands of tons of gold to its res...

Even Real Estate companies recently have climbed aboard the Bitcoin bandwagon.   After a stunning 60% drop in the price of Bitcoin, an IRS ruling, media frenzy, high profile arrests, the collapse of Mt. Gox, once the world's biggest Bitcoin exchange, Warren Buffet's comments on Bitcoin ( a "joke"...

16:10-20:11 Discussion of a recent Zillow poll claiming that four million renters want to buy homes. The problem with the housing market isn’t low inventory, it’s low demand. New home starts, new home permits and mortgage applications are down. “Who will buy homes as investors leave the market“. ...

In the last few years China and Russia have been furiously adding to their gold reserves. The chart shows Russia to have the seventh largest holdings of gold and China to have the fifth largest holdings of the yellow metal. A recent Bloomberg report speculates that China may indeed have vaulted i...

With the Federal Reserve seemingly intent on winding down its quantitative easing program that involves buying between 70-90% of newly issued U.S. Treasury bonds (T-Bonds) and a good portion of the exisiting mortgage backed securities(MBS’s) in order to keep interest rates low, who will buy them ...

The situation in Russia is heating up with a vote in Crimea today schedule to determine whether that province stays in the Ukraine. The U.S. and the E.U have threatened sanctions against Russia. Russia has made official and unofficial threats about what they may do in response to sanctions. If Ru...