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OLYMPIC LETDOWN ? No big race for London flats before Olympics "Demand for rental homes slack as people unwilling to pay three times the going rate." - says Bloomberg It seems like way too many landlonds are trying to cash in on the expected boom. Will people "stay away in droves"? The statisticians told them: "About 320,000 visitors will converge on London during the Olympic games in Augusr, and they will compete for about 140,000 hotel rooms"

It looks like a Bottom may be in formation - But not necessarily:

CHANGE from early Dec. 2011: DATABANK Week : CCLI : CMMI : RobinPl: Tregun : Dynast: Clovell / IslHarb : ParkA : Waterf : Sorrent : TArch : CaribC 04/22: 102.17 100.05: 13.644 : 17.901 : 22,118 : 17,113 // 9,793 : 10,022 : 11,636 : 14,651 : 17,426 : 5,221 12/04 : 98.13 : 94.30 : 14,189 : 17,635 : 21,790 : 16,859 // 9,016 : 10,054 : 12,435 : 13,257 : 20,131 : 4,834 ===== Change +4.1%: +6.1%: -3.8% : +1.5% : +1.5% : +1.5% // +8.6% : -0.3% : -6.4% : +10.5% : -13.4% : +8.0% Historical Data : http://202.72.14.52/p2/cci/SearchHistory.aspx OTHER LINKS AXpat Forum :: http://hongkong.asiaxpat.com/forums/hong-kong-property/ Cental-Data :: http://hk.centadata.com/cci/cci_e.htm

Obviously, they charge too much. It's 1% in Hong Kong. What is it now in the UK, I forget ?

I am looking forward to seeing it From your previous comments, this was particularly good: "Gordon Brown’s optimistic view for the UK economy is all smoke and mirrows. Whoever gets in after the election will have to address the problem of all this DEBT. The economic outlook for the the UK looks awful." Many of us were concerned about the Debt then, and in many respects, prices in London have held up better than I-for-one expected. Why? This explanation works: "Current low mortgage rates are therefore artificially maintaining the very high price of property in the UK... How long can this market be propped up.? Indefinitely?" We are still asking that question about London. This view so far looks right: "in nominal terms at least, the market bottom was reached in March 2009" But if and when rates rise, I personally think there's a good chance that the Hali-Wide low of 2009 can be taken out.

Two Stories from Moneyweek Could the UK housing rental market be about to crack? By Phil Oakley, 24 April, 2012 Despite high demand for housing and recent rises in rents, Britain's property rental market is showing signs of strain, says Phil Oakley. And that could be very bad news for house prices. How to cash in on the land bubble By Merryn Somerset Webb, 20 April, 2012 Agricultural land prices are soaring. And while they may no longer be cheap, they could still have a way to run yet. Merryn Somerset Webb explains the best ways for you to cash in - and warns of some investments to avoid. /see: http://www.moneyweek.com/investments/property/uk/uk-housing-rental-market-21700 EXCERPT: There may be lots of people wanting to rent properties, having the money to pay the rent is another matter. A recent survey by the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) showed that 41.2% of its members saw a rising number of tenants struggling to meet their rental payments during the six months to March 2012. More tenants are haggling over their rents, too, with landlords finding it harder to push through rental increases. And, according to Templeton LPA, the number of tenants in severe financial trouble rose by 10.2% in the first quarter of this year. Just over 9% of all rents were in arrears. And if people aren’t paying their rent, it becomes a lot harder for their landlords to pay the mortgage. Throw in the fact that many mortgage rates are going up, then we wouldn’t be surprised if buy-to-let mortgage default rates started to increase.

THE DOWNSIDE OF DELUSION "Presumed future wealth" often gets spent - with potentially dire consequences) BE CAREFUL what you wish for What would happen if, as so many people are hoping, home prices were to go up dramatically again as they did in the early 2000s? Would such a change really benefit society? People who most ardently desire this are homeowners who are underwater on their mortgages, who took out mortgages at the peak of the boom and now find that their homes are worth less than they owe on them. They would just feel relieved to get out of the red as soon as possible. But should they really be wishing for this, if they were to take into account all the effects and their humane concerns for all people? The property predicament .. By Robert Shiller The idea that rapidly rising home prices are positive is often based on unrealistic expectations http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/1cc90a5c-87a8-11e1-8a47-00144feab49a.html#ixzz1t6RnAgOF (click to see charts) The price increases the last time were brought on by some massively unrealistic expectations. This means that people made costly mistakes, and not just the mistake of a bad investment in homes. People under such delusions and feeling rich may not have taken necessary steps to maintain their human capital, their skills and job readiness, for instance. Their complacency about their presumed future wealth may also have meant that they did not save for the future in other forms. It means that people may have missed other investments that might have provided better for them. It even means that people may not have been supportive of taxes paid for government infrastructure investments that might have better supported the economy. . . . Even people who are living with underwater mortgages may not really benefit much from a home price increase. If it is like the last one, the increase may not last for long, and the bubble will burst again before they sell the property.

THE DOWNSIDE OF DELUSION "Presumed future wealth" often gets spent - with potentially dire consequences) BE CAREFUL what you wish for What would happen if, as so many people are hoping, home prices were to go up dramatically again as they did in the early 2000s? Would such a change really benefit society? People who most ardently desire this are homeowners who are underwater on their mortgages, who took out mortgages at the peak of the boom and now find that their homes are worth less than they owe on them. They would just feel relieved to get out of the red as soon as possible. But should they really be wishing for this, if they were to take into account all the effects and their humane concerns for all people? The property predicament .. By Robert Shiller The idea that rapidly rising home prices are positive is often based on unrealistic expectations http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/1cc90a5c-87a8-11e1-8a47-00144feab49a.html#ixzz1t6RnAgOF (click to see charts) The price increases the last time were brought on by some massively unrealistic expectations. This means that people made costly mistakes, and not just the mistake of a bad investment in homes. People under such delusions and feeling rich may not have taken necessary steps to maintain their human capital, their skills and job readiness, for instance. Their complacency about their presumed future wealth may also have meant that they did not save for the future in other forms. It means that people may have missed other investments that might have provided better for them. It even means that people may not have been supportive of taxes paid for government infrastructure investments that might have better supported the economy. . . . Even people who are living with underwater mortgages may not really benefit much from a home price increase. If it is like the last one, the increase may not last for long, and the bubble will burst again before they sell the property.

My comment is partly based on what is happening to the BDEV share price

Sorry, JD. But it is already in the price

This sounds as if it could be an interesting interview - But the sound quality is very poor: I wish I could hear it more easily. This is better, but stioll not easy to hear:

Yes, Please ! Have people looked at BDEV stock recently? BDEV.L / Barratt Dev'l ... update A break of 120P might be a good confirmation that BDEV's high is in

An interesting thought. I doubt it somehow. I think a lower gold price, would initially drag silver lower too. Maybe over time the Ratio would return to 15:1 or so.

The entire world outside of Europe and North America is increasingly on its way to ditch the dollar. This fact is not being reported in the MSM. Copyright issue prevents me from posting this article, so please go to the source of the article: Ditching The Dollar More on link: http://www.caseyresearch.com/cdd/ditching-dollar Snip In fact, they are doing more than pondering. Over the past few years China and other emerging powers such as Russia have been quietly making agreements to move away from the US dollar in international trade. Several major oil-producing nations have begun selling oil in currencies other than the dollar, and both the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have issued reports arguing for the need to create a new global reserve currency independent of the dollar. The supremacy of the dollar is not nearly as solid as most Americans believe it to be. More generally, the United States is not the global superpower it once was. These trends are very much connected, as demonstrated by the world's response to US sanctions against Iran. US allies, including much of Europe and parts of Asia, fell into line quickly, reducing imports of Iranian oil. But a good number of Iran's clients do not feel the need to toe America's party line, and Iran certainly doesn't feel any need to take orders from the US. Some countries have objected to America's sanctions on Iran vocally, adamantly refusing to be ordered around. Others are being more discreet, choosing instead to simply trade with Iran through avenues that get around the sanctions. === === I will be watching Casey, to see if he is willing to investigate "the amount of Gold that exists", as Bix Weir is doing

Interesting. Bix comes up with a figure of 1.5 Million tonnes - about 10X the "official" figure. That's what my research said, and I wrote here and elsewhere, that it might be important. And that Jim Sinclair could be a paid ramper, controlled by the Illuminati. It is interesting to see that Bix is now backing up the first point. Will others come to back up the second possibility ?

Are you still comfortable with that narrative? ("central banks are working to cap it") I don't really see it as a very complete story. Of course, there are mnay folks who want to see the Gold market and the Gold crisis as a battleground between evil central banks and noble and determined hard money advocates to purchase gold to fight the risks of money printing. I think an understanding like that is very incomplete. But I do understand that many still see it like that.

Indeed. And how many posting here one year ago would have predicted that? Or even considered that? I like to be aware on contrarian thinking on those things that I invest in. Here's a guy with a view on why not to link money to Gold. I reckon his view is as valid as a certain gold guru (with initials JS), who may be in the employ of an Illuminati group which owns loads of gold and wants to create a strong market for it, so they can offload their gold (at a high price) into the hands of willing buyers. Maybe you should listen to his view before rejecting it: Joseph Farrell

They are delusional. Believing that prices will (ney, must) move higher because other sellers are asking more

Anything to add to the "New Currency" thread ?: http://www.greenenergyinvestors.com/index.php?showtopic=16303 My comments on Gold were:

BIX WEIR AND DRAKE - are now "on the same page" ————————————————————————— Take Down of the Federal Reserve System Begins, by Bix Weir In an interview last weekend the “Good Guy Insider” gave a brief update on the pending take down of the Bad Guys. In this interview Drake said to expect something to be leaked out of the Federal Reserve sometime midway through the week. Here’s the interview and the Drake conversation is right at the beginning: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/freedomizerradio/2012/04/15/freedom-reigns [KP note: go here to download MP3s of this program from this blog] So I was watching for something related to the Federal Reserve and AS IF RIGHT ON CUE revelations came out about the Fed hiding massive amounts of information on their meetings during the 2008 financial crisis. Here’s Dylan Ratigan (part of the Good Guys) exposing the info. I will address this further in this weeks Friday Road Trip. Take Down of the Federal Reserve System Begins, posted with vodpod EVERYTHING is exploding for the Bad Guys. It may seem a bit confusing that the Road to Roota Theory shows the Federal Reserve working to take down the Banking Cabal and yet, on the surface, they seem to be working with the Bad Guys. My take: We have come to the time when the Federal Reserve falls on their own sword. /source: http://www.roadtoroota.com/public/873.cfm?awt_l=5khcU&awt_m=3Y6pERGuSpAZ85B

Jason Hommel reveals here how completely clueless he is: "Excuse me, my instinct tells me that clients don't want their long silver positions hedged, or sold short. Why would a client with a long silver position want the bank to create an offsetting short position for the client? If you buy stock or shares in a company, do you want your brokerage firm to short the company you just bought to "protect" you from upside gains? This explanation makes no sense." Prices only go up, right Jason ??? If JPM is "manipulating" the price it might be, repeat might be, because "someone" is giving them a large position to go out and hedge. If JPM were taking huge naked positions in Silver and Gold, they would have to report them in their statements. There are reporting requirements, and statutory limits on risk, that make me think that Blythe just might be speaking the truth in the video. Hommel should "go back to school" and learn a few things before displaying his ignorance on the web

/ from that link / : It is being exposed, and JP Morgan is failing, and losing money on their scheme. On April 5th, we were given the gift of JP Morgan's Blythe Masters giving a TV interview on CNBC where she was trying to claim that JP Morgan does not hold any position in the silver market, but rather, is hedging client long positions in silver. Blythe says, "We store significant amounts of commodities, for instance silver, on behalf of customers. We operate vaults in New York City, in Singapore and in London. Often when customers have that metal stored in our facilities they hedge it on a forward basis through JPMorgan, which in turn hedges in the commodities market," she said. "If you see only the hedges and our activity in the futures market but you aren't aware of the underlying client position that we're hedging, then it would suggest inaccurately that we're running a large directional position," she added. "In fact that's not the case at all. We have offsetting positions. We have no stake in whether prices rise or decline." The article and TV interview are here: JPMorgan Not Speculating on Commodities: Blythe Masters http://www.cnbc.com/id/46969993 Somebody is Lying here ! The headline says the EXACT OPPOSITE of what Blythe Masters said. With no more evidence than this (and having worked in a similar job at Chase, and knowing here husband) I tend to believe Blythe. Be careful with the "spin" coming from Silver perma-Bulls like this one !

Sure. If you are lucky enough to have a job, and money to save at the end of the month. But for how long will that last, if the economy falls apart ? And what good will a few gold coins do you if the US and UK have been taken over by a Global elite? Here's a scary (and recent) interview with Alex Jones:

That's not a Crazy percentage - 30%. But I have to wonder how many had the presence of mind, to shift some out, if price moves pushed Gold up to 35% or 40% of one's wealth ?

Stacking? They would be if they had sold some at $1920 and could now buyback at $1650 = that's 16.4% more coins to stack. A useful addition to one's "stash." Else: How can you take advantage of today's "opportunity" ? Now, there may be a NEW possible change coming into focus: The possibility that Dollars will be replaced with a NEW CURRENCY You can read about /& discuss it here: http://www.greenenergyinvestors.com/index.php?showtopic=16303