Value Microcaps Motherboard

[cliffvb]

Len, Despite a big drop over the last year, national housing starts and permits are running at about the same rate that they were in the mid-1990s. It seems to me that housing starts had been running at an inflated rate over the last few years due to easy credit and they have now returned to a rate that can be sustained in the long term. Also housing costs are much higher than they were in the mid 90s even after adjusting for inflation so there are still lots of $$$ working its way into the economy through the housing market. The slowdown in the housing market sure hasn't hurt the price of copper and most other base metals that are heavily used in the housing and construction industries that I can see as metal inventories continue to tighten and metal prices remain firm.

Sure, the housing speculators are being burned as prices are currently dropping but that may actually help the stock market as new investment dollars are put into that rather than into real estate. I am certainly not ready to go all cash as I am not at all convinced that we will have a recession and neither is the market which is why it has been so volatile lately. Time will tell.

BTW, Here's a link to historical housing starts and permits:

http://www.nahb.org/generic.aspx?genericContentID=45409