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  • #16
    Re: Real estate prices in gold hitting a 20 year low

    If the housing / gold ratio indicates housing is now "fairly priced" relative to gold, then housing itself today must be verging on "cheap" in absolute terms, because Mr. Murenbeeld, one of the very best forecastewrs on the gold price, is reiterating "gold is still cheap". Do we now regard housing as "verging on cheap" in absolute terms? Seems to me it was "absolutely cheap" in 1999. But not today. Meanwhile, Murenbeeld thinks gold looks "cheap".

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    Murenbeeld more bullish on gold - Brendan Ryan - Posted: Wed, 06 Feb 2008

    [miningmx.com] -- GOLD “guru” Martin Murenbeeld – chief economist for DundeeWealth Economics - has turned even more bullish since his last assessment given to the Denver Gold Forum in September.

    Murenbeeld now reckons there is a 40% probability that gold will end 2008 at a price above $1,000/oz which is his highest ever call on the metal.

    His predictions on gold’s performance over the past three years have been remarkably accurate although his estimates for last year ended up below what actually happened because of gold’s surge over the last three months of 2007.

    Murenbeeld had predicted an average price of $674 for 2007 and that the metal would end the year at $707. As of the Denver conference his predictions were bang on but gold then took off to end the year at $836 giving an average of $695 for 2007.

    Murenbeeld commented that; “I was bullish on gold but not bullish enough because the sub prime crisis happened then the European Central Bank pumped a whole lot of money into the system. Gold reacts far more quickly to money supply movements than it does to inflation.

    “However, like any good economist, if you did not like my previous prediction, well, I’m back for another crack at it,” Murenbeeld quipped.

    His latest “probability-weighted” call on the metal is for gold to average $901 during 2008 and end the year at $925. His longer-term forecast is for gold to average $961 during 2009. Murenbeeld derives his numbers from three models which look at low, middle and high price scenarios for gold to which he allocates probabilities.

    His upper-end model for gold this year allocates a 40% probability of the metal averaging $975 during 2008 and ending the year at $1,015. This scenario also predicts an average price of $1,075 for 2009.

    Some gold market forecasters would view Murenbeeld’s assessment as conservative but there’s a reason for that.

    Murenbeeld believes the gold price may have gotten ahead of itself temporarily and could pull back in the short term. He also argues that, while gold is in a long-term bull trend, it’s possible the metal could retreat for up to a year before resuming the upward trend.

    He listed eight factors driving the gold price higher. Some of the key ones are that monetary reflation in under way in various major economies while the US dollar continues to devalue against other world currencies.

    Foreign holders of US dollar reserves are looking to diversify their asset bases while Murenbeeld believed that, despite having reached record levels, “gold is cheap.”

    He said that, while the US dollar could stabilise or even strengthen against the Euro over the next few months, it was likely to devalue against Asian currencies, in particular the Chinese renmimbi (RMB).

    “We have to break our myopic focus on the Euro and look more at the Asian currency complex. Asian countries hold some $3.2 trillion of the $6 trillion worth of US dollar foreign exchange reserves. China alone holds $1.5 trillion.

    “That is a key imbalance in the world economy. It should never have been allowed to happen.”

    Murenbeeld said Asian currencies were likely to strengthen against the dollar which had important implications for gold because, unlike Europe, Asian countries were large consumers of gold which would become cheaper for them to buy as their currencies strengthened.

    Murenbeeld also reckoned these countries would look to diversify their asset base by selling some other dollar reserves and buying other assets such as gold. He believed this was already happening in the OPEC countries which were spending some of their dollar oil revenues on gold .

    He believed gold was cheap when the price was looked at in terms of gold’s historic relationship to the price of oil and financial assets as well as in terms of “real” value.

    While gold has broken through the $900 level Murenbeeld said that it would have to reach $2,295 to match its 1980 value in real terms when it last peaked at $850

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    • #17
      Re: Real estate prices in gold hitting a 20 year low

      20 years is a long time, but true investors must position their efforts towards lifetime performance.

      I can't remember where exactly - probably in one of Sir Warren's letters to BKH shareholders - but Sir Warren talked about 17 year periods starting from roughly 1975 to 2002, then from 2003 onwards.

      His points were several:

      1) Past performance is not indicative of future performance

      2) That the past period was a clearly cyclical bull, and that the future period is, in his opinion, going to be a cyclical bear where BKH would do well to manage 4%/year for the entire period.

      Thus the decisions made today must be viewed in the light of the expected future span as defined by the rule of 72.

      %gain expressed as a whole number divided into 72 = number of years to double. (i.e. 6% = 6; doubling period = 12 years).

      Expected future span divided by doubling period = number of dollars you are playing with in the future, vs. $1 now.

      Even for 60-ish people with 'average' expected spans of 12 years, $1 now is $2 later. For higher rates, more delta.

      For higher inflation, same effect, in reverse.

      So decisions made now DO matter, and 20 years isn't so long a time either.

      Comment


      • #18
        Re: Real estate prices in gold hitting a 20 year low

        I think we get messed up here with "averages"...

        Housing isn't housing. There are two housing environments.

        Housing in many areas is cheap. Areas that didn't "appreciate" so much, where you can rent a house out and get a positive cash flow without much down payment.

        Then there are the other areas where they pay you to rent. Where rents are 50% of the costs of ownership.

        I'm not sure there is a middle ground. In some areas housing isn't going to get much cheaper. In many areas, where most of the wealth is, housing prices are going to fall a whole lot in gold ounce terms.

        Comment


        • #19
          Re: Real estate prices in gold hitting a 20 year low

          Originally posted by zoog View Post
          I've been wrinkling my brow at this thread and the linked charts, and I just don't see it the way you do. Looking at my gold / median house chart below, I believe we're only about halfway down for this round. I suppose one could argue that houses are now "fairly valued" in ounces of gold, but I'm pretty sure they're going to go ahead and keep dropping down to "undervalued".

          Originally posted by c1ue View Post
          So decisions made now DO matter, and 20 years isn't so long a time either.
          Couldn't agree more. 20 years doesn't even take in the full span of the current financial economy phase from genesis to today...

          Looking at zoog's chart above and the last time the curve was falling, my recollection is circumstances in the 1970's were quite different than today. Back then nominal house prices were steadily increasing almost everywhere through that decade. Housing was considered a hedge against inflation, safer than playing other "hard assets" like commodities, and easily accessible to the ordinary person (no ETFs/ETNs back then).

          Clearly housing did not keep up with gold early in the decade after Nixon disconnected gold from the US$ (1971), and Gerald Ford legalized gold coin ownership for US citizens (1974). The mid-decade gold price correction is clearly visible on zoogs chart. Housing didn't keep up with gold during its blow off phase late in the decade either.

          But nominal house prices, especially in commodity producing areas of the country like Denver with its oil boom, kept going up until after Volker made credit more expensive at the very end of the decade. Even then price increases in most locations didn't stop immediately as there was a "rush" to get into housing before it became even more expensive to finance; after all a decade of experience "proved" to everyone that "house prices never go down" and record high Fed Funds rates "proved" that inflation was only going to get worse. The turn became self-reinforcing only after the initial decline in nominal house prices caused the mortgage lenders to withdraw credit availability to the sector - and commodity locations like Houston got smacked hard.

          This time it's going to be the financial centre real estate markets that get smacked the hardest.

          Comment


          • #20
            Re: Real estate prices in gold hitting a 20 year low

            GRG55 -

            New York City has been an oasis of firm property values compared to many other cities, and it's the financial capital of the nation. This housing bear market has been going on for 18 months now - one can't claim that it simply has not had time for the correction to 'kick in' in NYC.

            Fact is, NYC has one of the firmest housing markets in the US at this time and is the financial hub of the nation. Something's not adding up with the 'financial centers will fall the hardest' thesis - at least not so far.

            Comment


            • #21
              Re: Real estate prices in gold hitting a 20 year low

              Originally posted by Lukester View Post
              GRG55 -

              New York City has been an oasis of firm property values compared to many other cities, and it's the financial capital of the nation. This housing bear market has been going on for 18 months now - one can't claim that it simply has not had time for the correction to 'kick in' in NYC.

              Fact is, NYC has one of the firmest housing markets in the US at this time and is the financial hub of the nation. Something's not adding up with the 'financial centers will fall the hardest' thesis - at least not so far.
              The hottest markets always overshoot the most - to the upside and the downside. Momentum and sentiment (denial) are powerful factors that can keep things going (and keep people in the game) much longer than anyone expects, but fundamentals eventually prevail.

              Look how long it took before the plainly obvious credit derivative problems were FINALLY reflected in the stock prices of the investment banks, mortgage lenders like Countrywide, and now the mortgage insurers.

              Tokyo, which is the financial center of the second largest economy in the world, is instructive. Have a look at what happened to Tokyo real estate prices in the run-up to and subsequent bust of Japan's version of a financial economy bubble over the 23 years starting in 1980. Note that Tokyo real estate prices kept going up well after their financial bubble had burst and the stock market turned down. Similar cycles have been experienced in the world's other major finance center, London.

              The only thing that will save NYNY is if EJ's next bubble comes quickly and Wall St is able to find a way to continue to reap (skim?) an exceptional portion of the economic returns as they have from the last couple of bubbles. Jim Rogers, among others, apparently doesn't think NYNY real estate can be held at these valuations, and voted with his feet. ;)

              Even Vancouver is going to (eventually) adjust. It always has before,no reason to think "it's different this time"

              Comment


              • #22
                Re: Real estate prices in gold hitting a 20 year low

                Originally posted by Lukester View Post
                GRG55 -

                New York City has been an oasis of firm property values compared to many other cities, and it's the financial capital of the nation. This housing bear market has been going on for 18 months now - one can't claim that it simply has not had time for the correction to 'kick in' in NYC.

                Fact is, NYC has one of the firmest housing markets in the US at this time and is the financial hub of the nation. Something's not adding up with the 'financial centers will fall the hardest' thesis - at least not so far.
                Originally posted by GRG55 View Post
                The hottest markets always overshoot the most - to the upside and the downside. Momentum and sentiment (denial) are powerful factors that can keep things going (and keep people in the game) much longer than anyone expects, but fundamentals eventually prevail.

                Look how long it took before the plainly obvious credit derivative problems were FINALLY reflected in the stock prices of the investment banks, mortgage lenders like Countrywide, and now the mortgage insurers. ...
                According to Case/Shiller data through November, NYC is down 5.54% from peak so far. The NYC peak according to this data was June 2006. Sure, it's not down 16+% like San Diego, but, it's not exactly holding fast either.

                I guess I strike a position in between you guys. I think NYC prices have a ways to go down yet. But I'm not sure the "financial capital" effect pushes prices up (and then down) more than the "california" effect. "California effect" being: anything and everything turns into a mania in California. Then collapses.:rolleyes:

                Comment


                • #23
                  Re: Real estate prices in gold hitting a 20 year low

                  Originally posted by zmas28 View Post
                  A complicating factor might be the drop in the value of the trade-weighted dollar. Since gold trades internationally, the increased price of gold in dollars reflects the fact that the dollar has dropped big time over the last several years. This is not true of US home prices.
                  This is an important distinction. For example, gold is up about 12% since it's 2006 peak in Euro terms but up about 27% in US$ terms, (peak to peak). The difference of course is the change in the US$ trade weighted value over the same time, (relative to the Euro, the US$ is worth less today than it was in May of 2006).

                  As you pointed out, housing prices are not directly connected to changes in the trade weighted value of a local currency. That said, the replacement cost of these houses changes as the commodities required to build the house, (lumber, concrete, copper, etc.), are subject to the same forces as gold.

                  The problem with the thread's US centric metrics is magnified if we step back and take a longer view of the gold price in US$s and Euros. Since 2001, in US$ terms, gold has moved from ~$265 to $905, +241%. In Euro terms, gold has moved from ~276 to 624, +126%.

                  If we're really interested in better understanding the relative value of gold to housing, we should use several worldwide markets and not just US centric test cases.

                  Comment


                  • #24
                    Re: Real estate prices in gold hitting a 20 year low

                    Originally posted by c1ue View Post
                    20 years is a long time, but true investors must position their efforts towards lifetime performance.
                    True investors generally avoid investments that are rising quickly and fast, especially ones that are hitting 20 year highs and have zero yields. I think Warren would not purchase gold right now.

                    Comment


                    • #25
                      Re: Real estate prices in gold hitting a 20 year low

                      Originally posted by santafe2 View Post

                      If we're really interested in better understanding the relative value of gold to housing, we should use several worldwide markets and not just US centric test cases.
                      Well, I'm talking about investing in US RE real estate versus gold as a hedge against inflation.

                      I'm not talking about investing in global RE versus gold as a hedge.

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                      • #26
                        Re: Real estate prices in gold hitting a 20 year low

                        True investors generally avoid investments that are rising quickly and fast, especially ones that are hitting 20 year highs and have zero yields. I think Warren would not purchase gold right now.
                        Would Warren Buffet buy SP500 with only 2% yield? Would he buy US 10 Year Bond at 3.5%? The market seems to prefer GOLD with 0% yield to UST. You cannot argue with the market - the weak will get only weaker and the strong will become stronger. The price of gold will need to get to absurd level and then rise some more after iTulipers (including me) will decide to trade out of it

                        IMO, there should be capital intensive asset class at below fair value with low debt and attractive yields to set the stage for gold decline. What assets do you see as alternative to gold? US Housing is still expensive by lots of measures, not to mention Vancouver where I live.

                        gold vs ust.jpg
                        Last edited by idianov; February 07, 2008, 05:11 PM.

                        Comment


                        • #27
                          Re: Real estate prices in gold hitting a 20 year low

                          Got to agree with Idianov about this. And I'll hazard a "wild guess" Grapejelly agrees with this POV also.

                          Comment


                          • #28
                            Re: Real estate prices in gold hitting a 20 year low

                            Originally posted by idianov View Post
                            Would Warren Buffet buy SP500 with only 2% yield? Would he buy US 10 Year Bond at 3.5%? The market seems to prefer GOLD with 0% yield to UST. You cannot argue with the market - the weak will get only weaker and the strong will become stronger. The price of gold will need to get to absurd level and then rise some more after iTulipers (including me) will decide to trade out of it

                            IMO, there should be capital intensive asset class at below market value at attractive yields to set the stage for gold decline. What assets do you see as alternative to gold? US Housing is still expensive by lots of measures, not to mention Vancouver where I live.

                            [ATTACH]255[/ATTACH]
                            I strongly agree you can't argue with the market.

                            That's why I generally avoid speculating in individual entities such as gold, because I think you're trying to out smart the market when you do.

                            If you buy gold right now, you're arguing that the market is wrong and is undervaluing this asset.


                            My suggested alternative is just to stick to bonds and broad indexes, unless you are as smart as Warren Buffet.

                            Right now I am at a very high cash position but I am trying to re-enter the market as it drops.

                            If we see a 30%-50% drop in the market, I will be dollar cost average my way into about a 50%/50% equity/bond position. Only do this if you have long horizons (10+ years) for your money like I do. Equities are higher risk and require longer horizons, but therefore will also have a greater reward. Also, remember to take advantage of as many tax optimization techniques as you can.

                            I'd recommend the same for anyone I talk to. It's a boring approach, but it's proven to work well throughout the ages.

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                            • #29
                              Re: Real estate prices in gold hitting a 20 year low

                              Originally posted by blazespinnaker View Post
                              Well, I'm talking about investing in US RE real estate versus gold as a hedge against inflation.

                              I'm not talking about investing in global RE versus gold as a hedge.
                              Ah, I had thought this was more of a general question. Since gold is gold anywhere on the planet and real estate is specific to your investment, this question can only be answered within a specific context.

                              Comment


                              • #30
                                Re: Real estate prices in gold hitting a 20 year low

                                Blazespinnaker -

                                You wrote: << Only do this if you have long horizons (10+ years) for your money like I do. >>

                                If this is truly 10 year deployment money, do you recall having pulled it out of prior investments in only the last year or two? Maybe those prior holdings had originally been intended as 10 year positions also at one time?

                                We are always allocating '10 year money' but somehow we wind up selling our long term positions or at least cannibalizing parts of them for new investment ideas, every few years. Very, very rarely is it truly 10 year money which does not ever get further reallocated, and that's most especially true in today's highly turbulent stock market, and if one is referring to stocks, as opposed to something like inert gold coins, sitting in a safety deposit box.

                                I'll wager the coins are the last thing to get traded eventually, and the stocks are the first to get traded.

                                Some reputable people are talking about the eventuality of a 4000 point drop in the DOW at some point in the next one, two or three years. A big washout. Deploying 10 year money today into equities, no matter how strong their franchise, seems to me a task fit only for those of the strongest stomach. Inert bullion, which even taxes you by requiring storage fees, is looking very strong to confront the coming markets.

                                __________

                                FOOTNOTE: Mega's post here: http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthr...7004#post27004

                                A great example why holding bullion might be considered a 'very robust investment' in this brave new world. The chart referenced is downright scary. Would I want to have 50% or even 30% of my net worth in equities in this environment - call me weak-kneed, but I'd much rather not!
                                Last edited by Contemptuous; February 07, 2008, 05:49 PM.

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