A nutritional movement has been around for years that operates under the adage, "You are what you eat." I hope, however, that it doesn't become accepted lore that, "You know what you read." If it does, those who glace at headlines like this one will be in a world of hurt.
Washington -- Many Americans who have lost their homes to foreclosure are seeing their belongings auctioned as well because they can't pay the storage costs, analysts say.
With foreclosures on the rise, people put their belongings into storage units while they sought new housing. But with the mortgage crisis turning into a general economic crisis, storage companies are auctioning off people's possessions when they can't pay the bills, The New York Times said Sunday.
On the flip side, the storage unit business is booming, The Times noted. Stock for U-Store-It is up 33 percent and rivals Extra Space and Public Storage saw 18 percent gains this year.
U-Store-It chief Dean Jernigan said consumers usually turn to storage units in good times when they relocate for new work or remodel their homes.
A cartoon in the latest issue of The New Yorker magazine started me thinking about the current state of housing and homebuilding. It depicts a small cottage with three windows, each with a frightened-looking little pig staring out. At the front door stands a wolf in slacks, a tie, and suspenders. He's intoning, "I'm not huffing and puffing. I'm foreclosing."
Some things we know in our heads, and other things we know in our bones. Great investors understand, deep in their bones, the importance of seeking value, while people like me often pay it lip service.
There's nothing like owning the roof over your head and the floor beneath your feet. Having a bunch of walls in between is even better. Although there are those who prefer the modern-loft lifestyle.
"We now see potential for another 25% to 30% downside over the next two years." -- David A. Rosenberg, Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) in BusinessWeek, Jan. 31, 2008
That was a post on the Yahoo! message boards from Aug. 10, 2006. The stock referenced had dropped nearly 50% since the beginning of the year, yet it had more than tripled its revenue year over year, and it seemed on the verge of dominating its only competitor.
Perhaps you've read that there's some softness in the housing industry. The CEO of RPM International (NYSE: RPM) has seen the headlines as well. But based on what customers of the coatings company are conveying, business doesn't look so bad. The recent quarterly numbers also support the firm's solid outlook, come what may in the housing house of horrors.
On our Discount Brokers discussion board the other day, new Fool Community member Tastylunch was looking to open a new account with a discount brokerage. Tastylunch was looking for a secure one, having noted some security problems at brokerages such as TD Ameritrade (Nasdaq: AMTD).
We've become awash in sad tales about downtrodden families being forced from their homes by interest-rate resets resulting from adjustable-rate, subprime mortgages. The implied -- or occasionally overt -- message is that those mortgagees are innocent in the nation's housing mess, that the builders similarly have only been bystanders, and that the guilt for creating the disaster should be dropped solely at the feet of predatory lenders.
