When most people think about investments, their minds immediately drift to vehicles such as mutual funds, hedge funds, bond funds, REIT’s, and other methods of pooled investments that are either managed or pegged against an index. Many noted academics such as Burton...
Among the dreaded tax changes ushered in by the New Year, changes in the capital gains tax structure and rates will affect investment property income for investors on both sides of the wealth divide. Although the tax rate rose only for those on the high end of that...
Among the flurry of changes in tax laws that took effect on the first day of 2013, some new and amended rulings affect property owners – both homeowners and investors in income property. While some of these changes apply to anyone who owns residential real estate, the...
Part Three of Three Part Series Recent debt problems in the United States and across the world at large have brought the notion of a “gold standard” for the currency back into vogue. The allure of a gold standard is easy to see, since it means that there is a...
New Year’s Day came and went, and thanks to last-minute maneuvering, lawmakers avoided rushing like lemmings over the projected fiscal cliff. But as the dust settles and details emerge about the implications of the last minute deal, one thing is uncomfortably clear:...
When examining market bubbles, it is critical to understand exactly what they represent. Fundamentally speaking, a market bubble emerges when expectations about the future growth for a certain asset grow so high that people sacrifice future production and consumption...
Much has been made of bubbles in recent years. The late 1990’s saw the technology bubble, quickly followed by a real estate bubble that resulted from easy-money policies designed to stimulate recovery from the technology recession. Each time that a bubble emerges, it...
Is the housing market really recovering from the subprime mortgage crisis of a few years ago? The answer might lie in the shadows –the “shadow inventory” of distressed properties that remain unresolved, lurking behind the scenes of transactions moving houses through...
With a flurry of heated, last minute negotiating in the early hours of the New Year, the warring houses of the US government struck a deal on the “fiscal cliff” of the budget crisis. While the compromise deal left major spending cuts in place and eliminated some...
Although mortgage interest remains at a record low and cheap homes remain on the market, a major shift is taking place in the US housing profile: more people are choosing to rent rather than buy dwellings. With rental occupancy rates soaring and rents rising in...
