The combination of principal and interest is backbreaking. And maybe mortgage rates go even higher.
3/10
Many people defended home price-to-income ratios when people were locking in 2.75%. I'm not sure what the defense is anymore, now that mortgages rates are 5+%.
4/10
I'll show this table until I'm blue in the face. A total disappearance of the move-up buyer.
The whole thing was built on 3% mortgages. You get one more bathroom for $1,500 more per month. No thanks.
5/10
"Soft" housing market? Ask the shareholders of Redfin and Zillow if those stock prices are predicting something a bit more dramatic than "soft."
6/10
July new home supply records JULY data.
But July existing home data captures bids accepted in May/June with the closing documents signed in July.
Wait until the summer numbers come in. Up we go.
7/10
If you're not convinced, look at this.
The right scale is inverted.
The people who build houses for a living are telling us something. Maybe we should listen.
8/10
And...all of that Covid backlog of houses will be finished soon.
9/10
With buyers freaked out. Activity is tanking.
10/10
Because they cannot afford these prices.
END
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2/6 Japan's Nikkei 225 ran from 8,296 in 2012 to 38,211 because of the "TINA" concept: "There Is No Alternative" to sub-2% long bonds, so buy Japanese stocks. Also, many borrowed in low-yielding yen to buy Nikkei names (the yen carry trade).
China's carry trade set-up is here:
3/6 When China's stock market peaked on October 16, 2007, stocks were at bubble prices AND long duration bonds were 4.24%. Today, the scenario is flipped upside down: many earnings machines trade for sub-10 P/E multiples and the long bond yield has fallen to just 2.38%.
2/9 A country participates in the Pension Wars when politicians and/or influential members of society push large financial institutions to direct investment toward their domestic stock market.
3/9 What triggered the latest salvo in Canada?
This letter from 90+ prominent Canadian CEOS. It made a splash two weeks ago. In it, the CEOs lamented the pensions system's ever-declining allocation to Canadian stocks, which now make up just 4% of their collective asset base.
Japan’s $1.5 trillion GPIF and Korea’s $788 billion NPS, the #1 and #3 largest global pensions by assets, kick off the Pension Wars.
THREAD
2/15
The Pension Wars are the push for money management institutions to purchase their own countries' stocks because of political pressure.
Japan and Korea are the two Pension War leaders, but there are others.
3/15
GPIF’s asset allocation is simple: 25% in four baskets. I predict an increase in the proportion allocated to Japanese equities. GPIF's AUM is equal to CalPERS, the huge California pension plan, multiplied by 3.
2/10
Unlike the central bank-led Currency Wars, the Pension Wars are fought by politicians.
The objective: force Defined Benefit and Defined Contribution retirement plans into domestic stocks.
The US, UK, Korea, Japan, Canada and Germany are all fighting the Pension Wars.
3/10
First, Britain. Years ago, UK pension funds held more than 30% of publicly-listed British equities. Insurance companies also invested heavily. In recent decades, those allocations shifted to alternatives, foreign equities and fixed income.
1/4 The sharp decline in the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) Index points to falling consumer confidence.
This is a classic lag effect. Right now, the housing debacle is just a spectacle for the vast majority of people who didn't have to buy or sell in 2022 or 2023.
2/4 They watched from the sidelines.
But another year brings more people into this housing debacle. That horrible feeling, logging into the MLS and seeing no new listings, every day.
Even worse, having your hand forced and swapping a 3% mortgage for 7% because the school stunk.
3/4 A few million people had their household finances upended in 2023 because a family event like a baby being born, a job transfer or a family death had them in a situation where they had to change houses. For many, their mortgage payment doubled, or tripled.
1/6 Why is hardly anyone else paying any attention to this? Seriously? I looked up the top tweet on Kishida's "Doubling Asset-Based Income Plan" and the #1 engaged tweet was my own, with 11 measly retweets?? Why is FinTwit completely missing this?
2/6 Imagine what they'd be saying about the S&P 500 if we were weeks away from people suddenly being allowed to triple their IRA contributions. That is happening to Japan's NISA program in January. Not 2030 or 2035.
January 2024.
The world's 2nd-largest stock market.
3/6 I feel like there are about 3 people who ever come across my feed saying a single thing about Japanese equities --and one of them is my WisdomTree colleague @JeremyDSchwartz. Imagine if Biden or Trump had a plan with the words "Asset" and "Double" and nobody cared at all.