Sometimes the worst markets hide the best profit opportunities. And you don’t get much worse than the housing market at the moment. Jonas Elmerraji says prefab manufactured housing is making a big comeback in devastated real estate industry. He says investors can play this emerging trend with small cap firms like Skyline Corp (NYSE:SKY) and Champion Enterprises (NYSE:CHB).

More from Penny Sleuth:

While most investors look for industries they expect to boom in the future, there’s a solid investment case to be made for buying stocks in bad industries.

Jeremy Siegel, one of Wall Street’s best investment minds, said that, “Some of the most successful investments of the last thirty years have come from industries whose performances have been utterly horrendous.”

And if ever there was a horrendous market, housing’s it. The housing industry has sunk almost 40% this year, sending most investors heading for the hills…but not all…

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Does $2.00 for a

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Clear Skies Solar just signed an $8 million USD agreement with Prayag Green Solar Power Private Limited to develop and construct a two megawatt solar power project in Chitrakoot, Uttar Pradesh, India. This deal rides in the wave of a previously announced $20 million project for the area.

Since its launch, Clear Skies Group has installed solar power systems for municipalities, real estate developers, agricultural locations, office and residential complexes, storage facilities, manufacturing plants, schools, and more. Systems today run at efficiencies up to 95% for inverters and 15-20% efficiency of the solar panels. Clear Skies Group has developed several technologies which not only control energy consumption and monitor it, but also reduce demand load. It’s not hard to see that areas underserved by the petroleum industry can find an easy and cost effective energy source without the need for an intense infrastructure.

“We developed an aggressive international expansion plan earlier this

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India’s central bank yesterday (Monday) unexpectedly lowered its base lending rate for the first time since 2004 – a move that signals that India Reserve Bank Governor Duvvuri Subbarao sees weaker growth and the credit crisis as bigger threats than inflation in Asia’s third-largest economy. The Reserve Bank of India cut its overnight lending rate from 9% to 8%, according to a government statement issued in Mumbai yesterday. The “surprise move” that came days before a regularly scheduled meeting of its policy board came after India’s central bank reduced the cash reserve ratio by 2.5 percentage points to 6.5% – retroactive to Oct. 11, Bloomberg News and MarketWatch.com both reported. The so-called “repurchase rate” is the discount rate at which India’s central bank lends money to commercial banks to infuse liquidity into the market. India’s rupee ...

The St. Joe Company (JOE), a publicly held, operationally diverse real estate company, is based in Jacksonville, Florida. It is one of Florida's largest real estate developers. JOE is engaged in town, resort, commercial and industrial development in addition to land sales and commercial real estate operations. The company also has significant interests in the timber industry.JOE continues to reduce headcounts and cap ex spending in response to a rapidly deteriorating residential Florida real estate market. In addition, the company has responded by paying off most of its debt which will allow the company to hold lots instead of selling into a depressed market. There are no signs that the housing situation will get better in the next six months and we think the worst is yet to come. Near term, we would stay away from companies with exposure to the residential building business. ...

The St. Joe Company (JOE), a publicly held, operationally diverse real estate company, is based in Jacksonville, Florida. It is one of Florida's largest real estate developers. JOE is engaged in town, resort, commercial and industrial development in addition to land sales and commercial real estate operations. The company also has significant interests in the timber industry.JOE continues to reduce headcounts and cap ex spending in response to a rapidly deteriorating residential Florida real estate market. In addition, the company has responded by paying off most of its debt which will allow the company to hold lots instead of selling into a depressed market. There are no signs that the housing situation will get better in the next six months and we think the worst is yet to come. Near term, we would stay away from companies with exposure to the residential building business. ...

Basin Water (BWTR) is a designer, maker and marketer of water treatment systems used by utilities, cities, municipalities, special districts, real estate developers, and other organizations for use in treating groundwater. Major publicly traded for Basin Water include Aqua America Inc. and American States Water Co. Basin Water is looking to expand nationally, with an eye toward the Southwest, particularly the booming population centers of Southern California and Arizona. The company says those areas are expected to add 12 million in population in the next 20 years.

California-based Basin Water makes a market for itself in treating groundwater for consumption and groundwater has become a primary source of drinking water for many people living in the Southwestern and Western United States. The company’s proprietary ion-exchange system treats groundwater contamination at the wellhead. It offers three ion-exchange treatment systems, including on-site regeneratable systems, off-site regeneration systems, and disposable resin systems. Basin Water

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Financial NewsJason Corcoran in Moscow23 June 2008 Investment climate is steady as new leader continues reform agenda Russia’s equity markets are enjoying the country’s honeymoon period under its new leadership, but investors remain wary of how the power-sharing arrangement will evolve.The changing of the guard on May 7 saw Vladimir Putin hand over the presidential mantle to his protégé Dmitry Medvedev. Within hours, Medvedev had nominated his mentor Putin as Prime Minister.The smooth choreography proved to be a fillip for Russia’s main stock markets and sparked a buying spree by foreign funds.The MSCI Russia Index was the best performing emerging equity market last month, rising 15.7%, and outperforming the MSCI EM Emea index, which rose 7.3% in the same month. Inflows recorded in the third week of May of $542m (€350m) were the highest in Russia ...

Financial NewsJason Corcoran in Moscow09 June 2008 Swedish manager sees opportunities in downturnA marked slowdown in the Baltic economies has cooled the interest of many investors, but others continue to sense opportunities.Swedish fund manager East Capital Asset Management hopes to raise €150m ($232m) for a fund with a 20% exposure to the three former Soviet republics of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, to add to its €4.4bn of assets under management. Its Bering New Europe fund will invest in small to mid-sized companies in the central European and Baltic markets.Managers at East Capital believe the sharp adjustment has spawned companies with attractive valuations. East Capital director Andras Szalkai said: “We see good growth and limited risk for central Europe and the Baltics that we want to mirror in our fund. The global market situation has created many investment opportunities.”He ...

Financial NewsJason Corcoran in Moscow09 June 2008 Swedish manager sees opportunities in downturnA marked slowdown in the Baltic economies has cooled the interest of many investors, but others continue to sense opportunities.Swedish fund manager East Capital Asset Management hopes to raise €150m ($232m) for a fund with a 20% exposure to the three former Soviet republics of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, to add to its €4.4bn of assets under management. Its Bering New Europe fund will invest in small to mid-sized companies in the central European and Baltic markets.Managers at East Capital believe the sharp adjustment has spawned companies with attractive valuations. East Capital director Andras Szalkai said: “We see good growth and limited risk for central Europe and the Baltics that we want to mirror in our fund. The global market situation has created many investment opportunities.”He ...

Well it appears the ipo schedule will commence next week after a 3 week or so lull. We should see quite a few the back half of September so we’ll resume the one free weekly blog piece.

This weeks is an interesting China ipo from August, EJ. Note as always analysis pieces are available for subscribers before debut. The free blog pieces are all done pre-ipo and posted here after debut. We’ve analyzed pretty much every ipo here before debut for 2 1/2 years now.