It looks like we may see a real bottoming of housing in the US. Marc Faber and Warren Buffett is looking at US housing as inflation hedges.
This article in Slate could be a tell tale sign
As an illustrative example, consider the following from the complex where I live. In the rental portion of the facility, you can grab a 754-square-foot apartment for a minimum of $2,269 per month. In the condo portion, one door down, in a building also completed in 2008, an 868-square-foot apartment is selling for $419,900. That suggests that if you happened to have about $420,000 on hand, you could buy the condo and earn over $27,000 a year renting it out. That’s a yield of more than 6 percent on your investment purely out of rental income. You don’t need to worry about whether the unit will appreciate in price or not over time, just assume that thanks to inflation and population growth, you won’t see a sustained nominal decline in rents. That’s not a risk-free investment, but in the scheme of things it’s a great return on a pretty safe bet. For perspective, consider that Spanish government bonds yields getting up to 6 percent is considered cause for total panic. If you want to invest your $420,000 in U.S. government debt you’ll earn yourself yields that range from 3.13 percent on a 30-year bond to a mind-blowingly low 0.19 percent on a 1-year bond.
[Buy a house today! @Slate]
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