Daily Archives: February 16, 2011

Housing: Still Going Nowhere Fast

There’s not much cheer in housing these days, unless you’re a buyer with a fair amount of cash. Otherwise, the depressed state of residential real estate rolls on. Today’s update on building permits and new housing starts doesn’t change much, although with each month it’s becoming clearer that the bleeding has stopped. There’s also the usual bit of volatility on a monthly basis, and sometimes that dispatches a bit of good news. But it doesn’t mean much when you look at the big picture for this market. A recovery worthy of the name is still nowhere in sight.

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The Thrill of Victory, The Agony of Defeat

Morningstar reminds that there are lots of fund choices for diversifying across asset classes these days, perhaps too many. “Not only has the number of mutual funds expanded by the thousands over the past decade, but numerous exchange-traded and closed-end funds, many of them with very specialized, even exotic, mandates, have also popped onto the scene,” writes Gregg Wolper,

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