Here are some stories of interest from the past week.

Pay particular attention to the first one. Personally I liked it a lot. One line in particular stood out: “the journey to millions of dollars is earned one hundred dollars at a time“.

Here are the stories:

Real Estate

• What to do if you have no money for investing
• Due Diligence and Foreclosures: What do you need to consider?
• The Buying Opportunities Are Coming Back
• Real Estate Leaders Remember 9/11

The Economy

• The Federal Reserve is powerless to fix our problems
• Rick Santelli Tells Arch Globalization Advocate Friedman He Is An Idiot
• Moody’s Downgrade Of French Banks Imminent

If you’d like to join the discussion, drop by my facebook page at Cash Flow Mercenary.

Have a good week . . .

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It’s a race I guess.

Every time a quarter end gets close, all the economists start falling all over each other to be first out with their forecast for the next quarter. Having studied Econ myself in college, the one thing I’d really like to see is a scoreboard that shows how accurate these past forecasts are.

But that’ll never happen.

Because as soon as people saw how consistently worthless the forecasts are, and how they have literally zero correlation with reality, then the whole field of Econ would implode just like the American banking system is about to. And good riddance I would say.

So past accuracy notwithstanding (and apparently irrelevant), we have yet another forecast out.

This one was done by Marcus and Millichap, and they included their forecasts for 39 different metro areas in the US.

Ok – I decided to bite. I’m active in the apartment business here in metro Detroit. I own a couple of buildings, manage one myself, and I’m looking for more units to buy. I’m certainly no total “market expert” because this market is huge. But I am pretty knowledgeable. So I downloaded the “Detroit Metro Area Market Update”.

It only took one glance to see that they have no clue about this area.

Their headline read: “GENTRIFICATION EFFORTS WILL BOOST RENTER DEMAND”

And they went on to write: “The revitalization of downtown will lure major companies to the urban core, sparking long-term demand for rental units in the area, while lucrative concessions will bode well for the suburbs.”

My first thought was to check the date on the article to find out when it was written.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been hearing about how downtown Detroit is ready to explode in population and popularity (and NOT Molotov cocktails) since I worked (but didn’t live) down there in 1986. And then again when Dennis Archer was elected mayor in 1994. And then again when Kweazy Kilpatrick was elected in 2002.

And now we’re hearing it all over again with Bing.

But just because Blue Cross and Quicken Loans have moved some people down there semi-recently doesn’t mean they’re going to live down there too.

Did Compuware cause a huge surge in rental demand when they moved downtown? Uh, no.

Do you remember back when that little company called General Motors moved their entire HQ (and then some) into the Ren Cen back in the 90′s? Did that cause a housing and rental surge?

Yes actually that one did. In Grosse Pointe.

Which makes my point that these forecasts aren’t worth horsesh*t.

This one in particular reads like it was written by someone who used google searches as their primary source. Especially some of their employment forecast numbers.

You can get your own copy of this forecast for any of the 39 Metro Areas by visiting this link. Registration is required. https://secure.marcusmillichap.com/SignIn.aspx?ReturnUrl=http%3a%2f%2fwww.marcusmillichap.com%2fservices%2fresearch%2freports%2fdefault.aspx%3ftab%3d1

Read it at your own risk. Or if you’d like a chuckle.

I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on this.

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Here are some interesting headlines from the past week.

More talk of stagnation as the economic growth numbers came in “unexpectedly”, again, below expectations.

Here are the stories:

Real Estate

• A Potential Silver Lining Amid the Crisis of Confidence
• Homes Have Never Been More Affordable – With One Footnote
• Some Home Prices Fall Below Pre-Bubble Levels
• Five Reasons HUD/FHA Loans Are Gaining Popularity
• There’s No Place Like (A Multifamily) Home

The Economy

• Five Reasons to Be Worried
• Bernanke’s View of the Market, As It Stands Right Now
• Updating the Economic Outlook

If you’d like to join the discussion, drop by my facebook page at Cash Flow Mercenary.

Have a good week . . .

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It’s a mixed bag with respect to commercial real estate this week. Some signs show strengthening, some show weakening. From my perspective, all bets are off until we know whether the Fed is going to hit us with QE3.

Here are the stories:

Real Estate

• Commercial Real Estate’s Sink-Or-Swim Moment As QE 2 Heads To Port
• Commercial Real Estate CDO Delinquencies, Losses Rise in April
• Real Estate downturn — a troubling reality
• Analysis: Most U.S. commercial property has long way to go
• Commercial Real Estate Slowly Turning Around
• Commercial Real Estate Revival Seen In CBG, JLL Data

The Economy

• Inflation picking up steam: Prices rising fastest since 2008
• How the U.S. government will seize your retirement accounts

If you’d like to join the discussion, drop by my facebook page at Cash Flow Mercenary.

Have a good week!

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Beginning with this update I’m going to split the headlines into two groups – one for real estate specific news and the other for economic news that will impact real estate in the very near future.

Here are the stories:

Real Estate

• It’s official: Housing is crashing again
• Landlords Say They’ll Rent to the Foreclosed, Survey Says
• Judges May Be Illegally Modifying Mortgages
• California Woman Arrested in Foreclosure Assistance Scam

The Economy

• Top economist Williams: Hyperinflation endgame has already started
• “McFlation”: Why $5 hamburgers are coming to the U.S.

If you’d like to join the discussion, drop by my facebook page at Cash Flow Mercenary.

Have a good week!

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It’s clear that for whatever reason the true condition of the real estate market is not being reported. Personally I’m not a big believer in conspiracies (although I did LOVE the X-Files), so I d0n’t think there’s “foul play” involved. I think it’s a lot simpler – the media is just too lazy.

Here are several news stories of interest this week on the subject:

• Housing in freefall: Prices fall most in over a year
• Housing isn’t nearly as cheap as the mainstream media want you to believe
• Constitutional amendment in North Dakota would abolish property taxes
• The lamestream media finally wakes up to the MASSIVE foreclosure crisis

All the more reason to sit on the sidelines right now and keep your powder dry.

If you’d like to join the discussion, drop by my facebook page at Cash Flow Mercenary.

Until next week . . . .

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It’s not a question of IF anymore. It’s a question of WHEN.

After years of rampant spending and money printing by the US Government, things look to be coming to a head this summer. And whichever way things break, it will impact real estate investors. And at least in the short-term the impacts will not be favorable.

Here are several news stories of interest this week on events and conditions that will impact real estate:

• The Fed Must End QE2 on April 27th
• A massive U.S. dollar selloff could be starting now . . .
• The end of monetary easing?
• Government Cash Handouts Now Top Tax Revenue
• Why Is Anyone Still Waiting to Sell the Dollar?
• Marc Faber: Future Value of US Dollar Will Be Zero
• Why you should ignore this popular financial advice

I know that none of this is good news.

I also know that a lot of this may be news to you, especially if you’re relying on traditional news sources for your information. But the events that are unfolding in front of our eyes right now are significant, and they will impact real estate investors. The problem right now, as I have written in prior posts, is that no one know which way things will break.

So I’m watching closely and you should be too.

If you’d like to join the discussion, drop by my facebook page at Cash Flow Mercenary.

Until next week . . . .

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You think the Greek “debt crisis” is something bad happening to someone else way far away? Think again.

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