John T. Reed’s news blog
Time to stop pretending the Army-Navy game is what it was back in the day
Posted by John Reed on
Today is the day they used to play the Army-Navy Game “in my day” (’64-’68) and before. And it was one of the biggest football games of the year then. NCAA was still more popular than NFL then (pre-superbowl). Now, it is sort of a post-season, pre-bowl season exhibition game. . In recent years, they were forced to move the Army-Navy Game back into December because today is important rivalry day and neither Army nor Navy are important anymore in NCAA football. Army will probably be 5-6 after today’s likely win over U Mass (ranked 131 out of 131). I...
Gasparino says home prices will fall. He does not know what he is talking about.
Posted by John Reed on
Charlie Gasparino tonight on Tucker predicted home prices are going to fall. He says it is the same as crypto and meme stocks. He also said the current home situation is something like the 2008-9 subprime crisis..He is full of crap. A. Crypto bears no resemblance to US home prices. Crypto has no use. Not only can homes be used, they can be used by YOU for one of your greatest necessities: shelter. B. Meme stocks were run up in price by a bunch of overaged children on Reddit whose objective was to hurt short sellers whom they seem to...
Foreign countries do not have the fabulous home mortgages Americans can get.
Posted by John Reed on
Today's WSJ gives a strong "You got that right!" to the title of my most recent book The American Principal Residence is the Most Advantaged Investment on earth: Maximize Yours!.Is WSJ reporter Nicole Friedman finally ending her anti-investment in homes crusade? No. It's a James Glynn column about interest rates on home mortgages in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, the three foreign countries where I have bank accounts. I wish I could have bank accounts in Europe too, but it is essentially impossible for an American..Home appreciation has been higher in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand than here..BUT—they do not...
New housing starts are down; renovation of homes, up. Both should be down.
Posted by John Reed on
Housing starts are way down. But home renovation is up. . Is that contradictory? . Yes. . Why is it happening? . Home builders or most them are competent businessmen. They know that under present conditions, the sale price of a new home is less than the cost---unprofitable. . Are home owners incompetent? Yes. Remodeling Magazine does an annual article showing how much profit the most common renovations make in resale value increase. . ALL Aare unprofitable. The best, like just exterior painting. may clear 90% of their cost, but still means they lose the other 10%. And that's in...
WSJ says the Austin home market ‘cool[ed] way, way down,’ but they leave out home mush homes there went up in the last 12 months. Why?
Posted by John Reed on
Today’s WSJ attack on home values is about Austin, TX which they say, “cool[ed] way, way down.” . Really, I thought, and I searched for the most recent last 12 months appreciation rate—in vain in an unusually long article: 1 2/3 pages. Never mentioned. . Rather they do their normal misleading touting of unit sales and weeks on market and such other metrics that are of interest only to Realtors® and home builders. . None of that matters if your home in Austin sold for 13.9% more than it was worth a year ago. Six months ago the market nationwide...