The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[DewDiligence]

WY—That explains everything!

In all seriousness, in the CC transcript in #msg-144485819, WY’s (outgoing) CEO was speaking truthfully about what he believes to be the state of the US housing market, and anyone in operations at WY is well placed to make such an assessment.

Monthly housing-start data (seasonally adjusted) bounce around a lot, and it may be premature to call a major downturn.

A drop in housing prices, without a concomitant decline in new construction and remodeling activity, doesn’t affect WY to a material degree. On the other hand, most business-press and general-press articles about the housing market focus on housing prices rather than volume, so the tenor of these write-ups can be unduly bearish relative to the actual business outlook for WY.

Regardless, yesterday’s 8.5% selloff was extreme, and WY ought to be a stable source of value during a broad market downturn, for the reasons mentioned in #msg-144353853.