SPDR S&P 500 (SPY)

[wingsneck]

Hey Foot - Housing. I live metro-west Boston where my 1500 sqft home built in 1930 hit a high of $340,000.00 in appraised value 2 years ago where it's now at $300,000.00. No big deal to me as I decided not to not overleverage myself by continously upgrading like I saw many friends do......they can't figure out how I can afford 2 real nice vacations every year and save for my kids college - it's because my mortgage is $1400/mo while they have a $2800/mo mortgage. Simple math.

Anyway, I sold an old couch to a realitor this weekend as he wanted it to use for staging empty houses. The weather up here is finally starting to turn toward Spring (2-days ago we had snow, Tuesday they are calling for 65 degrees). The realitor was pretty giddy. He said has been busy showing houses/open houses and has seen a noticeable uptick in business.

I started out of college in the early 90's working at the FDIC during the last big bank crisis and still have many friends in the field. I'm sure you've heard that the FDIC is hiring back a lot of bank examiners and foreclosure specialist from retirement. While this is cleary not a positive sign, I do think we have the makings of a bottom in Real Estate as my FDIC days back in the 1992 area represented the bottoming back then.